PARKERSBURG - Parkersburg City Council will consider the first reading of an ordinance to rezone part of 24th Street for a proposed hotel development at its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. today.
The ordinance seeking to rezone 925 24th St. from a split-zoned lot to B-2 was unanimously approved by the Municipal Planning Commission.
MPH Hotels plans to build a 100-unit hotel on the site of the Henry Logan Children's Home property. Preliminary plans include a three-story hotel with privacy fence and landscape buffer, additional retaining walls and an ingress and egress for the property from Emerson Avenue.
The planning commission meeting was attended by a number of residents near the proposed site who had questions and concerns about the development, but few dealt with the issues of rezoning. Assistant City Attorney Rob Tebay said many of the questions pertained to good-neighbor relations.
City Councilman John Rockhold represents the area. He attended the planning commission meeting and spoke to residents afterward and encouraged residents to meet with Michael Holtz, president and CEO of MPH Hotels, as well as visit some of MPH's other sites, including the Wingate Hotel in Vienna. Rockhold said he was told residents met with Holtz.
Rockhold said when he was first notified of the project, earlier this fall, he received some calls from residents with questions. Over the past weeks as some public meetings have been held to discuss the issues, the phone stopped ringing. However, he expects residents will attend tonight's council meeting.
"I also recommended they come to council for the first reading (of the ordinance) to review this," he said.
