Proposed hotel gets special exception

22 and 24 W. Washington St., Greencastle

Despite concerns over its impact on downtown parking, a proposed 10-room hotel in the historic old Central National Bank building has been awarded a special exception variance to operate in the Central Business District of Greencastle.

The special exception variance for property at 22 and 24 W. Washington St., was awarded to Downtown USA, owned by Australian Paul Stubber, who also operates a race car business in Greencastle. Stubber was represented at the Greencastle Board of Zoning Appeals’ June meeting Tuesday night at City Hall by agent Stacy Barclay, a local attorney.

Barclay said Stubber will be “pretty flexible” in his plans with 10 hotel rooms and a property manager’s residence targeted for the historic structure locals know as the bank John Dillinger infamously robbed in 1933 and as the longtime home to Greencastle’s beloved “Chewing Gum Lady,” the late Edith Browning.

It was noted that Stubber has taken down a small building at the rear to provide some minimal parking likely for staff and would like to negotiate a 15-minute loading and unloading zone out in front of the double doors of the building along Washington Street.

With residential uses on the first floor of downtown buildings prohibited, City Planner Scott Zimmerman noted that the first floor of the old bank is planned as the hotel lobby.

The Greencastle City Council recently amended the zoning ordinance to allow hotels as a special exception in the Central Business District. As an allowable use in the General Business 1 and General Business 2 districts, hotels are required to provide one parking space per sleeping unit.

However, that is not the case in the Central Business District where parking requirements can be waived by the city planner if it can be demonstrated that adequate parking is provided in a city-owned public parking lot within 1,320 feet of the site on which the use is located.

In his staff report, Zimmerman noted that “adequate public parking exists within 150-300 feet of the building” to accommodate 10 overnight cars.

However, local attorney Scott Bieniek said parking has been an issue downtown since he purchased his office at 3 E. Franklin St. on the opposite side of the square from the hotel project site in 2006.

“This concern about parking isn’t some Chicken Little thing, it’s a real issue,” said Bieniek, who called himself the self-proclaimed “unofficial parking czar of the downtown.”

Bieniek added that what was presented Tuesday night wasn’t sufficient enough to address parking concerns.

“I’m not opposed to the idea,” he added. “I’m all for growth and excited to see us use an existing building. The concern remains over parking.”

Meanwhile, Chuck Meyer, director of facilities for Crown Equipment Corp., which has offices in the old Horace Link building along South Indiana Street and maintains a parking lot behind it off Jackson Street, is concerned that people are going to “park as close as they can,” which could mean unauthorized vehicles being parked in the Crown lot.

There are also 10 spots in the city lot at Walnut, Indiana and Jackson streets reserved for Crown employees in return for Crown’s donation toward the purchase of that former First Christian Church parking lot site.

Zimmerman reminded BZA members and the audience that the city has commissioned a downtown parking study tied to a larger hotel project possibility in the old Old National Bank/First Citizens Bank building where 60 rooms have been unofficially proposed.

“This review is based on 10 rooms,” Zimmerman said of the Stubber proposal. If it were to expand, further consideration by the BZA would be required, the city planner added.

Admitting he too was “sensitive to the parking issues,” BZA Chairman Doug Wokoun noted that “in times past it (parking) has been far worse than it is today.”

Wokoun added that the 50- to 60-space city parking lot “at least for overnight, should be adequate.”

BZA member Paul Champion also said he was “real sensitive to the parking issue” but sees the hotel project as “a real shot in the arm” for the downtown.

Board member Andrew Ranck made the motion to approve the special exception variance, which was seconded by Jon Clark and made unanimous by Wokoun and Champion.

The BZA is scheduled to next meet in regular session at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 5 due to the Fourth of July holiday falling on Tuesday.