Not One, But Two New Hotels Are Proposed in Bath

What started out as a plan to build one new hotel on a 5.5-acre Springside Drive parcel in Bath Township has grown into a proposal to construct two new hotels on the site bordering Interstate 77.

Bryan Ashman, a site design engineer with Cooper & Associates LLP in Canton, will be presenting the newest plan for a 105-suite Homewood Suites by Hilton and a 102-suite (Marriott) Fairfield Inn & Suites to the Bath Board of Zoning Appeals at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Bill Funk, Bath zoning inspector/administrator, said the Homewood project needs to secure a green-space-reduction variance while the Fairfield project needs a height-limitation variance in order to move forward in the approval process.

The 5.546-acre parcel that would house both hotels is located at 260 Springside Drive, which is on the northwest side of Springside about 1,750 feet north of its intersection with Medina Road. The property itself and all adjacent properties are zoned B-3, a district where hotels are a conditionally permitted use.

Ashman explained in the Homewood project’s May 25 zoning variance application that the building is a pre-designed, four-story prototype. He said a redesign to meet the township’s 35-foot height limitation would be a financial hardship and would create a structure that does not conform to the owner’s standards.

Cooper & Associates is acting as the surveyor and site design engineer for the project. The firm has been retained through the developer’s architect, TMI Hospitality. Testa Companies is the developer. The parcel is currently owned by Dressler Properties Inc. of Canton.

Funk said the Homewood project was granted a variance by the zoning board on June 19 to construct a building with a maximum height of 60 feet in a zoning district where the current height limitation is 35 feet.

“A couple weeks later (Ashman) contacted me about a second hotel,” Funk said. “They’re looking at splitting the property in two. With that property split, the Homewood (parcel) would need a variance for minimum green space. We require 50 percent and they’d be slightly below that.”

When the zoning appeals board convenes Tuesday, the Homewood green-space variance will be considered along with a height-limitation variance request for the four-story Fairfield project.

Funk said the Springside Drive parcel, nestled between two office complexes, will “essentially be split right down the middle. The two hotels would share access and parking between them.”

An outdoor swimming pool was proposed in the original Homewood plan.  Ashman said he doesn’t yet know whether the Fairfield also will have a pool.