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Second Finney hotel gets green light
AUGUST 17, 2023
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
The vacant 2-acre parcel where a second Finney Crossing hotel is planned is ‘one of the few remaining undeveloped sites within Finney Crossing,’ according to developers. It is within view of the original Finney Crossing hotel, built in 2021. OBSERVER FILE PHOTO Right, an artist rendering of a proposed 115-room hotel at the corner of Holland Lane and Market Street in the Finney Crossing neighborhood. COURTESY OF THE WILLISTON PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT
Application is first under ‘form-based code’ BY JASON STARR Observer staff A planned new hotel in the Finney Crossing neighborhood will be the first construction approved in Williston without review by the Development Review Board (DRB). Last month, the four story, 115-room hotel received the equivalent of a DRB “Notice of Decision” — a letter the town typically produces after a land use application approval — allowing the Snyder Group to proceed with the project. The letter came after an administrative review at the Willis-
ton Planning and Zoning office. It was the first such review under the town’s “form-based code” regulations for Taft Corners that went into effect last fall. Under the regulations, land developers seek a “certificate of conformity” with the regulations from the planning director, rather than approval from the DRB. “Thank you for your patience. This is our very first one and we are still developing our process,” Planning Director Matt Boulanger said during a June meeting with developer Chris Snyder. The application was first submitted in April. After the meeting, the town provided Snyder a letter saying,
in part: “Staff finds that the (application) is in full compliance with the Taft Corners Form Based Code.” The letter gave Snyder the green light to finalize a wastewater allocation purchase and pay water connection fees and impact fees to the town. The “certificate of conformity” required to build will be issued after the fees are paid, according to the town’s planning and zoning department. On Monday, Senior Planner Emily Heymann said the certificate has not yet been issued. The hotel is planned at the corner of Holland Lane and Market Street, just a stone’s throw from another hotel that opened in 2021,
and across from the L.L. Bean and Jersey Mike’s restaurant that front Route 2. The vacant 2 acres is “one of the few remaining undeveloped sites within Finney Crossing,” Snyder wrote in the application. Williston Fire Chief Aaron Collette and Public Works Director Bruce Hoar participated in the administrative review. Collette requested some tweaks to fire hydrant and window locations; Hoar signed off on the plans without reservation. Hoar did, however, note that the addition of the hotel will necessitate additional traffic control at the Holland Lane-Market Street intersection. Currently, the intersection has stop signs in two di-
rections. The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission is studying the possibility of make the intersection a four-way stop. “One of the things behind that is the proximity of this hotel,” Hoar said. He said the town originally went with a two-way stop sign not anticipating a hotel at the intersection. The town has received complaints about the current functioning of the intersection, Hoar said. “I suspect it will come back from the regional planning commission that it meets the criteria to become a four-way intersection, especially with the addition of this hotel,” Hoar said.
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