Plans for downtown Winooski hotel crawl forward

This 3D render image shows Winooski Hotel Group LLC’s proposed hotel. Courtesy photo.

A plan to build a hotel in downtown Winooski inched forward after the Winooski City Council signed on as a co-applicant with the hotel developer’s Act 250 permit — though several key issues remain unanswered.

Issues over parking for the hotel, which led to the project’s original Act 250 application being withdrawn in 2017, were at the forefront of this discussion during a council meeting Tuesday.

“You don’t have a parking plan in place,” Councilor Mike Myers said to property owner and developer Adam Dubroff of Winooski Hotel Group LLC. “These are concerns, legitimate concerns.”

“We’d have about eight spots,” Dubroff told the Council. The plan includes several fifteen-minute-limit parking spaces on the opposite side of Winooski Falls Way from the proposed hotel’s lot, along with a proposal to convert 3 to 5 public parking spaces along Winooski Falls Way for exclusive use.

The plan also includes using a valet service to bring guest’s cars to a nearby parking garage. In a later interview, Dubroff said that “the city is expanding its parking space with a new garage… that should alleviate all of those concerns.”

The motion passed by Council does not necessarily allow for the project to go forward, but rather affirms that the proposal for the 96-room hotel is consistent with the City’s plan for the downtown area. The project will be pending local zoning and building permit reviews.

“This is just one initial step in a long permitting process” said City Manager Jessie Baker. “It’s quite an involved process and Act 250 permits usually take between...two and six months to process, depending on appeals and things like that.”

Act 250 is Vermont’s land use and development law. The law provides a process in which developments such as the proposed hotel can be reviewed in terms of social, fiscal and environmental impact, including parking and traffic concerns.
The motion passed by Council included a caveat that City staff and the development group address key issues such as parking concerns, emergency service access to the building, the construction of elements in the City’s right-of-way, and the creation of infrastructure in a neighboring lot.

“There are a number of things that need to be resolved beyond just [parking and traffic]” Baker said. “It’s very common that the city works with developers to move similar projects forward, so I think that there are solutions to all of this, and primarily we’re waiting on recommendations from the developer about how he’s going to address some of the concerns the City’s staff has brought up.”

The business license for Winooski Hotel Group LLC was listed as terminated until a reporter contacted Dubroff. As of a filing Feb. 18, the license is up to date. Baker said that she was unaware of this.

“We were under the assumption that the Winooski Hotel Group was a continuing entity that we’ve been working with for many years” she said.

Dubroff said that the terminated status of the listing was due to clerical error. 

The hotel development plan was originally proposed by the Winooski Hotel Group in 2016, and this proposal was revised in May 2017 to expand into a neighboring lot. After the proposed expansion, a lawsuit was filed to block the continuation of the project by the Winooski Downtown Redevelopment Association. 

Baker said that the lawsuit surrounded “development covenants that were put into place at the beginning of our tax increment financing district.”  This lawsuit was then withdrawn when the initial Act 250 permit was withdrawn, Baker said. 

Dubroff said that he does not expect any future legal pushback from the Winooski Downtown Redevelopment Association. “They had input on the plans” he said.

Another point of concern for the Council is the potential increase in traffic during hotel check-in times. During the meeting, Civil Engineer Associate David Marshall stated that the average hotel check-in time is between 4 and 8 p.m.

There are concerns regarding the effect on other businesses as well. During the meeting, Mayor Kristine Lott acknowledged that the plan to use street parking could potentially take parking spaces from other businesses. 

In response to this concern, Marshall said that “Lot 9 was always a part of the downtown project.” He said that if the hotel were there first, they would complain about other businesses taking their parking spaces.

It is unclear when construction can begin. More steps will need to be taken for the process to continue.

“The developer drives that side of the process, so it’s up to him how quickly he wants to move” Baker said. “At a minimum I think that all takes...eighteen months to three years.”

“We’re hoping we’d be able to break ground before next winter,” Dubroff said.

While issues remain concerning the details of the project, Baker says that “there will be more opportunities for public comment and feedback in the future.”