Proposed downtown hotel fails to get by city board
A tie vote was not enough to OK project for historic area
A city board has deadlocked on whether an eightstory, 226-room hotel would be an appropriate fit for a Riverside downtown known for its historic buildings, meaning the project failed to get the approval it needed.
The Cultural Heritage Board voted 4-4, with one abstention, Wednesday, effectively denying a certificate of appropriateness required for building in a historic district.
The move followed the Riverside Planning Commission’s approval last week for a conditional-use permit and variances from development standards for the 1-acre Mission Inn Avenue project on the site of the former central fire station and a parking lot.
City officials have said approvals from both panels were needed for the project to move forward.
City spokesman Phil Pitchford said the project’s developer can appeal the cultural board’s decision to the Riverside City Council.
Atman Kadakia, managing principal at Greens Development in Irvine, said Thursday his development team was weighing options and hadn’t decided on its next move.
“We’ve worked on this project for four years,” Kadakia said. “We’ve invested millions of dollars into this project. We will give this project a fighting chance and hope to see it through.
“We know we have a good project,” he said.
Some board members thought the hotel’s size and height would detract from surrounding historic structures, including the morethan-century-old First Congregational Church with its signature bell tower across the street.
Board member Carol McDoniel said the hotel would be out of scale with the historic district and obscure views of the church, which she called an “important architectural, historic and cultural feature,” according to a meeting videotape.
Scott Watson, the city’s historic preservation officer, said the bell tower is a little more than 114 feet tall and
the hotel would be a little higher than 93 feet.
Other board members, including Natasha Ferguson, suggested the project would be compatible.
“I think this project would be a welcome addition to the historic downtown,” Ferguson said.
Watson said the city received 25 comment letters before the board meeting. He said 16 were in opposition, eight were in support and one was neutral.
During the meeting, six people phoned in to comment, four in favor and two against.
One of those opposed, Brian Flynn, said his group Supporters’ Alliance for Environmental Responsibility planned to appeal the planning commission approval, saying the hotel would adversely affect the area’s historical character.
Vicki Broach, a First Congregational Church member and a church trustee from 2014 to 2020, also expressed opposition.
“With an eight-story building on our eastern flank, we’re not going to have sun until late in the day, if at all,” she said, according to the videotape.
Other church members earlier said the hotel would block views of the iconic bell tower from the 91 Freeway and other parts of Riverside.
On the other hand, Kadakia has said the hotel would call attention to the church and other historic buildings through an open-air view deck featuring plaques with information about them.
“That was created as an opportunity for not only the hotel guests, but also the general public, to come up, get a breath of fresh air and to look at some of the beautiful historic buildings in the area,” Kadakia said, according to the videotape.