FARMVILLE — Town council made news last Wednesday night in a single vote that should produce two stories.

In a hotel.

A public hearing will be scheduled on a proposed change to the B-4 zone that would accommodate the height requirements of a proposed four-story hotel on South Main St. at the former site of St. John’s Lutheran Church.

Town council also approved the conditional use permit needed for the project to proceed.

The zoning ordinance now requires a conditional use permit for a hotel or motel, though they are an allowed use, in a B-4 zone. The suggested change would stipulate that a conditional use permit may be required and would furthermore remove the current 35-foot height limit.

Removing that limitation would allow the developer, David Francis, of Francis Hospitality Inc., to add two stories, a third and fourth floor.

Francis “wants to build this up to 55 feet” Town Manager Gerald Spates told town council. “And the ordinance only allows 35 feet. I’m asking council…that we consider advertising for a change in the zoning ordinance, just to strike out height restrictions.”

Council voted to do just that.

If the zoning ordinance change is approved, the permitted height of a structure in the B-4 zone would be left up to the discretion of town council. A Longwood University student housing facility in the B-4 zone already exceeds the 35-foot limit.

“You’re going to be hard-pressed to turn down a hotel in a B-4 zone where you already have hotels,” Spates said during council’s February work session.

Not that town council has any intention whatsoever of erecting obstacles to any hotel.

Though his application uses the word “motel” Francis told The Herald that motel and hotel are used interchangeably, “but technically it’s going to be a hotel because it’s going to be greater than three stories in height. Typically, anything above two stories is a hotel and two stories or lower is a motel.”

His conditional use permit application does not list which specific hotel franchise chain will be involved but Francis said as soon as all the necessary permits are “approved we’re going to announce the particular brand that it’s going to be.”

Francis anticipates breaking ground in August for what he describes as a 75 to 85-room hotel that will likely employ approximately 25 people.

The 2.127-acre property fronts South Main Street to the east and Peery Drive to the west. Francis said his research told him there was room for another hotel in Farmville and he was “very surprised that I could find that site and it was right there on (US) 15 so I thought the location was just a phenomenal location.”

Spates said during council’s meeting that the hotel would need to be a minimum of 25 feet from the adjacent residence and “they would have to provide a screen of some type in between the properties.”

The Town is keen for the project to proceed and succeed.

“This is something we’ve wanted for a long time,” Spates told The Herald last month. “We have several good hotels but you know at times we’re short of rooms and I think this will really add a whole lot to the community. It will help boost up all the businesses. We’re really looking forward to it.”

So if Francis.

“I’m very excited about coming into Farmville,” Francis told The Herald. “I have an extensive hotel background. I’m actually building, in Lynchburg, Comfort Inn & Suites right now, and I’m the former owner of the Best Western in Lynchburg. I just recently sold that.”

The Farmville project, he said, just came together perfectly, between the interest rates, the available site, and the community’s capacity to support another hotel.
“Farmville just has a great feel to it,” the former Best Western International board of directors member, and former Best Western board chairman, said. “It’s hard to explain. It has good karma.”