Five years later, residents still strongly oppose four-story hotel on Pizza Kastle lot

Despite opposition from Garden District residents, the commission voted 8-1 to approve the developer’s plans for the hotel, which will be a Tru Hotel by Hilton.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Below is a story posted from Tuesday’s administrative meeting of the Dothan Planning Commission concerning the development.

Time has not eased the concerns of Garden District residents about a four-story hotel bordering their backyards.

Around a dozen residents sat quietly in a boardroom Tuesday afternoon while the Dothan Planning Commission members discussed the details of the development plans for the property where the former Pizza Kastle building currently sits vacant on Ross Clark Circle.

After the meeting, longtime Rosetta Circle resident Angie Murphy summed up the sentiment among the group: “We are not happy.”

This isn’t the first time Murphy and her husband, Carl, have expressed negative feelings regarding the development of the hotel next to their neighborhood. This time, she was talking to District 6 Commissioner David Crutchfield.

Five years ago, when similar plans were introduced by a different developer, Murphy and other like-minded neighbors voiced their opposition to the Planning Commission. The developer who submitted plans requested an exception to decrease the required buffer several feet, and the commission tabled the action.

However, Angie Murphy, whose family has lived in its home for 27 years, said the new plans have not swayed her stance on the issue. Her concerns and those of her neighbors in attendance at the planning commission’s administrative meeting remain the same.

She said their utmost concern is of the sheer height of the hotel, which would allow hotel guests to see directly into her backyard and house.

“We have children, young children, that play out in the yard,” Jamie Poland, another resident who lives on Rosetta Circle, said. “We’re concerned with the easy access to our backyards.”

Members of the Planning and Development Department addressed those concerns during the meeting, saying the developer has agreed to the 30-foot buffer requirement and agreed to their landscaping recommendations to plant tall evergreen trees and other shrubbery. Plans have also been discussed for a 5-foot or taller fence on the south property line, something that is not required by city codes.

“We’re concerned about drugs; we’re concerned about all kinds of illegal activities,” Angie Murphy said regarding accessibility to her home. “I want as high a fence as they can build.”

The trees suggested will take time to mature and aren’t effective as a sound buffer, a fact not lost on the residents.

Mark Poland, who also lives on Rosetta Circle with his wife, Angie, remembers when TGI Friday’s was built and developers agreed to plant the same species of trees to make the idea more amenable to nearby residents.

The trees, Mark Poland said, took 10 years to be effective as a visual buffer, and the loud music played on the restaurant’s outside patio can still be heard at their home at night.

“The long and short of it is there is a business opportunity there, but the impact to us and the other residents are far more negative than a little hotel going right there,” Mark Poland said.

Jonas Forrester, who recently bought a 2-acre parcel for his family that shares about 150 feet of the proposed hotel lot’s property line, said that the vacancy of the property does invite other unwelcome guests.

“I’m not too thrilled about it,” he said. “The way it is right now, I’d rather something be there instead of having a vacant lot. I can think of better businesses to go there than a four-story hotel, for me personally.”

Residents also expressed the fear their property value will plummet if the hotel is built.

Crutchfield attended the meeting to gather information and to hear from residents. He said the plans are a sign of Dothan’s growth and hopes that if the plans get approved, the developer will be sympathetic to his constituents.

“I hope they can put that extra step … to provide as much buffering as they can for a four-story hotel next to residential housing so that those folks feel safe that there’s not somebody looking out the window at them, so hopefully that (tall fencing) can be added,” Crutchfield said.

The information about the development plans will be reviewed during the Planning Commission’s regularly scheduled board meeting at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the City Commission chambers on the civic center’s second floor.