Neighbor opposes hotel planned for Route 9
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Shrewsbury - Plans for a new hotel along Route 9 in Shrewsbury have been slowed almost before they started by a resident whose property is adjacent to the proposed site.

Plans for the hotel, which would have about 120 rooms in a multi-level, apartmentstyle building, were presented to the Planning Board July 11. The tentative name of the hotel is Value Place. The site plan filed with the town was drawn up by Liberty VP Shrewsbury LLC of Maitland, Fla.

The building, which would have about 43,000 square feet of usable space, would sit on Route 9 where Lake Street crosses. The hotel would be similar, cost-wise, to another hotel in Shrewsbury, the budget-friendly Worcester City Motel. Like the Worcester City Motel, Value Place would rent rooms for up to a week at a time.

According to town records, the land where the hotel would be built is currently owned by Rose-Marie Levesque, who lives in the senior housing community Southgate at Shrewsbury.

Pamela Taylor and her two children, Adam, 14, and Laurel, 10, live at 5 Douglas Circle. Taylor has lived there 15 years. The proposed site for the hotel is directly behind her backyard.

When Taylor heard about the plans for the construction of the hotel, she wrote the Planning Board and voiced her opposition to the plan, stating in the letter that she and her family have "enjoyed the very private, wooded setting of our backyard."

Further down Taylor's letter reads, "the plans proposed by Liberty VP Shrewsbury LLC, for a four-story, 120-room hotel represents the worst possible scenario for my family, our neighborhood and our town. Such a project would dramatically impact the value of my house as well as the lifestyle of my family."

Currently, Taylor's backyard is heavily wooded with a small barn sitting near the house. Large, fully grown trees line her property line, as does a stonewall. The combination of the two gives Taylor and her family some relief from the traffic noise of the heavily-traveled Route 9.

The site plan shows that Taylor's house, as well as other houses that are in the area of the hotel - which is expected to be a 50-foot high structure - would have about 15 feet of space between their property lines and where the parking lot for the hotel would begin.

The plan to build the Value Hotel became a viable possibility following the Sept. 26, 2006, Town Meeting when a zoning change for Levesque's property was approved, changing it from a multi-family housing zone to a commercial business zone.

The zoning change leaves the town and abutters like Taylor with few options. As long as Liberty VP Shrewsbury LLC shows compliance with zoning regulations as it goes through the site-plan approval process, the Planning Board is bound by town bylaws to approve it.

The Planning Board scheduled a public hearing regarding the proposed hotel for 7 p.m., Sept. 6. The first hearing was initially set for Aug. 2, but was postponed because the hotel's developers failed to notify abutters.