P&Z approves 100 unit hotel building permit
Permit contingent on Town Engineer’s approval of plans
September 13, 2005
The Town of Pinedale Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Board voted 4-1 to approve a building permit request from Vista Grande LLC for a 100 unit extended-stay motel at a special meeting with the Pinedale Town Council on Monday night, September 12th. The permit approval is contingent on approval of the plans by the engineer the Town has hired to review the project.
The P&Z Board had deferred making a decision on the building permit application at their regular meeting last week in order to seek advice from the Pinedale Town Council and to get comments from the public on the project proposal. A number of citizens attended the meeting and voiced comments and concerns about the impact the project would have on Pinedale and support services in the community. Impacts to fire, medical and social services resources were some of the topics discussed.
One of the concerns voiced was the haste with which the project was brought before the Town in requesting the building permit. Board members felt they did not have adequate time to evaluate the overall impacts of the project. The 100-room hotel will be the largest housing structure to date in the town of Pinedale. The Town hired a separate engineering firm to review the plans for this project for them since Rio Verde Engineering is representing the developer. Rio Verde has worked on behalf of the Town on many other projects in the past. In a letter to the Town, Mark Eatinger from Rio Verde Engineering stated, “The deal was just completed for this project. With the building season fast coming to an end, the owners, Vista Grande, LLC, are attempting to beat the snow and cold by applying for this building permit with building plans still developing.”
According to the builder, Mitch Paris of Paris Construction Management, the new hotel would be entirely leased to a company that services the oil and gas fields for the first five years and no rooms would be available for public or visitor stays during that time. The building would be located on the north side of U.S. Highway 191, on the west end of Pinedale across from Country Lane Liquors.
See the Sublette Examiner and Pinedale Roundup newspapers on Thursday for more details about Monday night’s special meeting.
|
