Hotel decision today

GHotel decision today
Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 1:03 am by Beth Romanik

St. Augustine City Commissioners will decide today whether to approve a 21,000-square-foot hotel that would be built on the corner of St. George Street.

The project’s developer is asking the commission to grant him a planned unit development for a boutique hotel that would also include retail shops. It would be built at the corner of St. George Street and Cathedral Place, which is across from the Cathedral-Basilica.

The project has caused some friction with the Cathedral because it would take up half of Bank of America’s parking lot, or roughly 25 spaces. The lot is used by Cathedral parishioners who buy $1 decals from the church and park there on Sunday mornings.

The hotel is also in an historic district must have design approval from the city’s Historica Architectural Review Board. The board had some minor issues with project and tabled it. If the commission approves the hotel, it will still have to go before the Historic Architectural Review Board, Mark Knight, city planning and building department director has said.