Athens officials have dropped a development bombshell into the heart of our city. The Lostro “Hotel” at the corner of Court and Union is a massive development. Plans include 22 two-bedroom apartments, two large restaurants and up to 18 retail stores. Despite its scale, the city is allowing out-of-town developers to develop this space without requiring them to create one parking space or pay for the other infrastructure costs. The consequences will affect us for years to come.
The development has already cost us two local businesses, Jack Neal Florists and Grub N Go. As construction ramps up, the negative impacts on other merchants are escalating. Construction trucks dominate the streets, sidewalks are blocked, and traffic lanes are restricted. The congestion will not stop when all the contractors go away. Our town will never be the same.
The mayor denies city responsibility for this boondoggle, claiming building plans are approved by the state. True, the state approves all structural plans (to avoid the potential for local graft). But contrary to the mayor’s denial, the city has significant control over how this space gets developed. Instead of exercising that control, city and regional officials facilitated the project through public grants, tax abatements, utility waivers and other incentives, all with little public notice or input.
The Lostro Building is landlocked. The building has no door or access to the back. The frontage is without a curb-cut or driveway. The only access to this building is pedestrian access through the front doors. Any other access requires use of the public right-of-way, something the city controls. Any developer wanting a simple change of use has to go through the city. So the Mayor claiming no responsibility for this overblown project is ludicrous. He, himself, said a hotel there was a brilliant idea and pushed this forward.
As an example, look at the parking requirements. Twenty-two units means 44 rooms and a potential for 88 tenants. The city code requires a developer building 22 units to provide 44 new parking spaces. In September, the Athens Board of Zoning Appeals gave the developer a variance, only requiring them to provide 20 spaces. Instead of actually building parking, the city says the developer can simply rent parking spaces in the city’s often-full parking garage or at the Fairgrounds instead of actually providing parking. The city even offered the developer discount parking vouchers.
Lostro is building two levels of retail businesses below these two floors of new housing. In this space they plan 20 new businesses including two anchor restaurants. Lostro’s publicity claims these businesses will employ at least 75 people. Add to this Lostro’s own administrative, maintenance and security employees. Where are these people supposed to park?
And then consider all the patrons needed for these 20 new stores. Between the restaurants and the retail, hundreds of customers are needed on a daily basis to make these businesses successful. Where are all these people expected to park? The answer is they won’t. After driving around the block three times and not finding a space, most people will give up and go home.
This is already happening and will get worse as construction ramps up. There are already four building permits for the Lostro property, that means four different contractors and all of their subcontractors each needing parking and access for construction vehicles, all at the same time.
The Lostro “Hotel” is also not covering its impact on Athens utilities. Capacity fees that would normally be charged to developers have been waived by the same city administrators that claim they can do nothing to trim down this massive project. The city created a Special Improvement District just for the Lostro property and then loaned it 2.4 million dollars.The city facilitated these developers receiving millions of dollars in tax credits while at the same time raising income taxes for local citizens.
The city helped Lostro obtain Historic Preservation Tax Credits and Transformational Mixed Use Development Tax Credits worth millions of dollars.The project got $431,920 in Brownfield Remediation Grants. The County Commissioners jumped in, creating a one-building Economic Development Zone and granting the property a ten year, one hundred percent real estate tax exemption on all planned improvements.
Will the city next decide we need a new parking garage and new water/sewer to deal with the impacts from this project? Be assured: local citizens, not the Lostro Hotel owners, will pay the assessments for these needed mitigations. Lostro doesn’t have to pay real estate taxes for ten years under the deal we gave them.
Without public review, without impact studies, without even a conversation with the neighbors, the city is dropping this cluster of congestion right onto the heart of our city. It’s just not reasonable. Please find me one hotel anywhere else in the country that has been allowed to develop without a single parking space? Have you ever been to a hotel without a covered entrance and dedicated parking so people checking in have a place to park? All this is supposed to happen out in the street? Visitors can double park while they unload their luggage?
The city’s response to the Lostro proposal is a textbook example of failed city planning. There is no plan, and no planning. It is only expansion at all costs here in the City of Athens. Count me out.
And next time you end up driving around town three times before giving up and going home in frustration, you will know whom to blame.
Don E. Wirtshafter, J.D.
Athens, Ohio
