Another Lexington Park hotel proposed but tabled

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Cherry Cove Development of Lexington Park proposes a 96-room hotel called Home 2 Suites next door to the J. T. Daugherty Conference Center. There is already a Fairfield hotel there at the complex, which is also owned by Cherry Cove.

Planning commission member Shelby P. Guazzo said she visited the neighborhood of single-family homes behind the 5-acre hotel site. "I felt sorry for the people at the bottom of the hill in their little single-family houses," she said. As designed, the woods on the site would be torn down out leaving only a 15-foot buffer between the back of the hotel and the neighborhood's backyards.

"They're squashing an awful lot on this piece of property," Guazzo said. She and the rest of the planning commission agreed to require denser plantings in the buffer, a 7-foot fence and lights no higher than 15 feet, so they don't shine on the houses to the rear. "I don't care how many lights they have to put in," she said, to make up for the decreased height.

The hotel is planned to be four stories, about 47 feet high. "You're looking down on people's backyards," said planning chairman Steve Reeves.

"There are no balconies on the building," said Brian Norris, chief operating officer for Cherry Cove, which also owns a Hampton Inn farther north on Route 235.

In the Lexington Park and Solomons area, Norris said there are about 1,400 hotel rooms, whose occupancy is primarily generated by Patuxent River Naval Air Station. More than 530 of those hotel rooms are in southern Calvert County, he said.

"This has just become a boom," said Susan McNeill, planning commission member. "I guess I'm just concerned about the occupancy."

The average stay in hotels in this market is 4.6 days, Norris said, and St. Mary's College of Maryland tends to bring in many weekend visitors to the county, along with tourism efforts.

But because of the site constraints for Home 2 Suites, the proposal was tabled for further review. "I'm trying to get away from those houses," Reeves said.

There is a hotel still under construction in the First Colony shopping center in California. A hotel is also planned for Hickory Hills off Chancellor's Run Road, and another has approval to building off Route 235 between Days Inn and the old Cedar Point shopping center. There is also a new hotel in Leonardtown and one at St. George Island.

jbabcock@somdnews.com