The Santa Cruz Planning Commission roundly rejected the prospect of a three-story, 86-room Fairfield Inn to announce the northern entrance to Santa Cruz, citing inappropriate design, concerns about signage and distance from amenities like restaurants.
The Santa Cruz Planning Commission roundly rejected the prospect of a three-story, 86-room Fairfield Inn to announce the northern entrance to Santa Cruz, citing inappropriate design, concerns about signage and distance from amenities like restaurants.
“I’m not opposed to a hotel, but I am opposed to a cheap, ugly hotel,” said planning commissioner William Schultz, holding up a photocopied image of a mockup, “and this is what I see here.” Schultz then went on to enumerate the design elements he’d like to see prohibited—plastic muntins on the windows, Styrofoam details on the exterior, windows flush with the outside wall—and ultimately urged the applicant to “get a local architect and then follow their recommendations.”
Planners also voiced fears that the hotel, which would have been one of the first buildings drivers saw as they entered town from the north on Highway 1, didn’t send the right message about Santa Cruz. The inn, a Marriott brand, was proposed by Lotus Management Inc. for the Mission Street extension, beyond Western Street. “Fairfield is not for Santa Cruz County,” said commissioner David Foster. “If you see Fairfield when you come to town, you’d say, ‘Oh, I’m lost.’ This is Santa Cruz County, not Monterey County. In the same way we can say no to the Golden Arches, we can say no to this.”
Several community members also spoke against the hotel. Neighbors from Grandview Terrace complained about light pollution and signage, and Grandview Terrace resident and UCSC graduate student Taylor Goldstein said the industrial area should be left to industry since the city is trying to attract creative and tech industries. Dilip Patel, owner of the Knights Inn, said the group of small hotel owners he represented didn’t see a need for any new rooms.
Other community members, including Santa Cruzans for Responsible Planning member Reed Searle, supported the hotel, noting that “industrial” zoning is a very broad umbrella.
In the end, with planning commissioners clearly poised to vote against the project unless it were reconceptualized, chairman Scott Daly asked applicant Prakash Patel of Lotus Management if he wished to take his design back to the drawing board. Patel said no. “If you want Buckingham Palace in the city of Santa Cruz, you’ll find somebody else to do it, not us,” he said. He also noted that he’d seen many business cycles in his three decades as a hotelier, and he had no doubt Santa Cruz would one day find itself in need of more hotel rooms.
The Planning Commission’s unanimous recommendation to deny the project goes to the City Council, which will consider the matter in an later meeting.
