Audio By Carbonatix
Daron Tapscott
The former Harwood K. Smith-designed office building on Turtle Creek, where Canadians want to build a hotel and sell alcohol
At last, the city council today will consider GGH Development’s request to build a hotel, spa and restaurant at 2505 Turtle Creek Boulevard — you recall, site of the Harwood K. Smith-designed office building razed by the developers without warning on a spring Sunday morning. It’s late during the council meeting this afternoon: Agenda Item No. 61, which’ll likely go a while as neighbors and developers debate not only the proposed project — the most controversial aspect of which is GGH’s desire to sell booze, currently a no-no in a predominantly residential area and so close to Reverchon Park — but also the Canadian developer’s tearing down the building before it made its case to council. (The City Plan Commission has already voted against both the hotel and the lifting of the booze ban.)
City staff has actually recommended approval of the hotel-spa-restaurant, but it too doesn’t want to lift the so-called D-1 Dry Liquor Control Overlay, which prohibits the sale of alcohol. But Karl Crawley, president of Masterplan and the man repping GGH before the city, on February 15 sent to city planner Richard Brown a letter offering a compromise in which GGH would apply for a specific use permit in order to sell booze, which the council would also have to approve — but not renew, which is the opposite of how the SUP process is supposed to work. So, please, for those attending, do bring your popcorn. –Robert Wilonsky
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