160 Rooms on East Main: Blue Ridge Planning Commission Takes Up Downtown's Biggest Hotel Plan Tuesday

A plan for a 160-room hotel at 260 East Main Street goes before the Blue Ridge Planning Commission on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 6 p.m., and it is the largest hotel proposal downtown has seen. The 6.43-acre site is zoned for industrial use, so developer Rich Chism of Chattanooga-based Heron Hotels needs a rezoning, a conditional use permit and a height variance before anything gets built. That makes Tuesday the first real chance for residents to speak on the record about traffic on East Main, stormwater running into the creek that crosses the property, and what 160 more rooms do to a town this size.

Chism first walked through the plans at a drop-in "Community Input Session" on Tuesday, April 7, advertised on a "Blue Ridge Hotel" Facebook page. About 20 people showed up. Along with the rooms, the plans include a 5,000-square-foot event space and parking matched to the room count. Chism described the design as intentionally historic-looking, something meant to read like a restored old warehouse.

A second phase would add a five-story "workforce housing" complex with 6,000 square feet of retail. Chism said he has heard repeatedly that people who work in Blue Ridge struggle to find a place to live here.

Two height asks, not one

Blue Ridge generally caps building height at 35 feet. Both phases of this project would need relief from that.

Phase	Height variance sought
160-room hotel	8 feet
Five-story workforce housing + retail	23 feet

Asked at the April session why he wanted to go up, Chism said building outward instead of upward makes the project unaffordable.

Height is exactly where the city has already bent. Earlier this summer, a separate 84-key boutique hotel at 101/109 Mountain Street cleared the planning process with a special exception allowing a maximum of 51 feet from the site's lowest elevation point, well above the 35-foot standard. That site is 1.28 acres and slopes sharply, rising roughly 31 feet from East Main Street up to East First. Staff conditions attached to that approval included a traffic study, water and sewer fees, and a stormwater management plan before permitting. Expect the same list of conditions to come up Tuesday.

The creek is part of the story

The stormwater question on East Main is not hypothetical. Chism told the April crowd that the property owner selling the land has real concerns about the city's stormwater in the creek on the site and the erosion that has already happened there. Residents at that session pushed on infrastructure, parking, whether the project supports existing businesses, and protecting trout streams.

Fannin County's creeks feed the Toccoa, and trout water carries its own buffer and runoff rules. How the city and state handle drainage across 6.43 acres of new roof, pavement and parking is likely to be the most technical fight in this application, and the one with the longest tail.

What the commission can and can't do

The Planning Commission recommends. It does not have the last word. On the Mountain Street hotel, the commission passed its recommendation up to the Blue Ridge City Council, which took the final votes on rezoning and the conditional use permit. The same path applies here, meaning a favorable vote Tuesday sends the project onward rather than approving it outright.

A timeline Chism displayed in April put the application date at April 27 and a Blue Ridge Development Team meeting on May 20. As of the April session, no rezoning or permit applications had been filed with the city.

If you want to be in the room

The Planning Commission meets at Blue Ridge City Hall, 480 West First Street, on the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. when there is business to hear. Zoning hearings are where public comment carries the most weight, because the record built at that meeting follows the application to council. Agendas and packets are posted through the city's Planning and Zoning page.

What has not been said publicly: how many rooms the city considers appropriate for a parcel that size, what a traffic study on East Main would require, or how long the two phases would take to build. If the commission votes Tuesday, the next stop is a council meeting, and that is where the decision actually lands.

Follow the vote and everything that comes after it at Blue Ridge Georgia Community Website. Going to the hearing, or have a take on 160 rooms downtown? Join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more government and politics stories and follow our business development coverage as these hotel projects move through City Hall.

Header photo: Thomson200 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)