This story by Jason Starr was first published in the Williston Observer on May 18.
The first-ever land development application under Williston’s new form-based code was recently delivered to the town’s planning department.
The same ownership group that constructed the Hilton Home2 Suites hotel in the Finney Crossing neighborhood in 2020 is proposing a new four-story hotel just a stone’s throw to the east. Once constructed, the two hotels would be about a football field’s length apart.
“The existing hotel is doing very well, and that might give you some insight why another hotel might work,” Finney Crossing developer Scott Rieley said, referring further questions to Erik Hoekstra of Redstone development company in Burlington. Hoekstra is the “managing general partner” of both the existing 100-room Hilton and the proposed 115-room hotel, which will be sited at the corner of Holland Lane and Market Street. He could not be reached for comment.
The landowner and official project applicant is Rieley Properties and Snyder Commercial Properties — the partnership of Rieley and Chris Snyder that has created the mixed-use neighborhood that now boasts a variety of national and regional restaurants and retailers, as well as a mix of condominiums and apartments. Snyder, Rieley and Hoekstra attended Tuesday’s meeting of the selectboard, where they asked to purchase 10,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity to accommodate the hotel’s operations. The board unanimously approved.
“Another hotel is a planning goal for the town?” asked board member Jeanne Jensen. “I’m struggling with that. Every hotel, is that housing that doesn’t get built?”
The hotel is sited on one of three remaining unbuilt lots in Finney Crossing. On the drawing board for the other two remaining lots are an apartment building and a multi-tenant commercial building. In contrast to the Hilton hotel, the new hotel is designed in an “L” shape and with a sloped roof, in accordance with the new form-based code.
The selectboard adopted the form-based code last year, creating new building standards that focus on the look of construction and its relation to streets and surrounding buildings, rather than the traditional form of zoning that regulates building uses. The hotel application is the first to be filed under the new code. It will be reviewed by town staff for conformity with the code, instead of the traditional land use review by the Development Review Board.
However, one aspect of the plan does need to go before the DRB for approval, according to Planning Director Matt Boulanger. That is a land subdivision that is a prerequisite of the project. The developers last week filed the required subdivision permit application with the DRB, of which Rieley is a member and former chair who typically recuses himself from applications involving Snyder and Finney Crossing.