CCB MEDIA PHOTO
The Cape Cod Commission subcommittee reviewing the SpringHill Suites Marriott project discusses the plan during a workshop last Friday.
FALMOUTH – The Cape Cod Commission subcommittee assigned to the SpringHill Suites Marriott project will hold the third in a series of hearings on the project tonight.
The hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. at Morse Pond School on Jones Road in Falmouth.
Last week, the subcommittee held a workshop session on the project at the Assembly of Delegates meeting room in the Barnstable District Courthouse in Barnstable Village.
During the session, subcommittee members voiced concern about several aspects of the project, including the scale of the building and the architecture.
The 110-room hotel is proposed to be located on East Main Street at the intersection of Lantern Lane.
Residents of Lantern Lane, as well as other abutters to the project, have come out strongly against it, saying it will overwhelm the neighborhood with its scale.
Falmouth Selectman Mary Pat Flynn serves on the Cape Cod Commission through her position as a Barnstable County Commissioner.
During last week’s workshop, she said the hotel is proposed as a business hotel.
“The idea was that this would be a place for people who wanted to do business with the town. A lot of people come to the town for business purposes. You have the hospital. You have the scientific institutions. You have the base,” she said. The location on Main Street close to public transportation would allow a business person easy access to town hall as well as the hospital and Woods Hole.
But she said the architecture on the building is a problem.
“I think it’s just a very unattractive building to look at. The design, the presentation, the arches, the dormers, are just simply unattractive,” she said.
Commission staffers said they would pass along the subcommittee’s comments to the applicant.
Cape Cod Commission Executive Director Paul Niedzwiecki reminded the subcommittee that they are reviewing the project as a development of regional impact, but under a limited review for Heritage Preservation/Community Character.
They can look at benefits and detriments of the project under the category of Heritage Preservation/Community Character. Toward that end, Commission Regulatory Officer Jeffrey Ribeiro put together a proposed list of benefits and detriments that have come out through the applicant as part of public comment.
On the benefits list, he included “would further the town’s goal of redeveloping the eastern end of Main Street” and “would improve the character of a blighted site through redevelopment.”
Included on the detriments list drawn up by Ribeiro are “would negatively affect the flow of traffic on nearby roadways compared to the current conditions” and “would detrimentally impact community character through large building size inconsistent with local development patterns.”
