A couple intent on converting a bungalow home into a bed-and-breakfast inn on East Cesar Chavez Boulevard agreed Tuesday to delay the Planning Commission vote on their conditional use permit for two weeks in order to negotiate further with neighbors.
Owners Kathy Setzer and George Reynolds called the East Side Inn their dream. The couple intends to manage the property on site. They have negotiated with the East Chavez neighborhood contact team. But since the conversion is considered a “small-scale project,” local neighborhood organizations – and there are about 20 of them registered in the area – were not notified until late December.
Architect Chris Krager of KRDB described the addition to commissioners. He said the 1,600-square-foot bungalow is located between two other bungalows also converted for business. One is the Mission Funeral Home and the other is a hair salon. The Water Street Lofts are located two doors down.
Hotel/motel would be a conditional use under the current zoning as CS-MU-CO-NP. The five-bedroom addition would be on a second floor behind the house. Three parking spaces would be located under the addition.
Marcos DeLeon, who spoke at the hearing, said he represented the seven surrounding and overlapping neighborhoods. Commissioners, including Chair Dave Sullivan, expressed frustration that local neighbors had failed to request a postponement before the case was laid out before the commission.
People aren’t necessarily opposed to the hotel, DeLeon said. Commissioner Saundra Kirk assured him that a bed-and-breakfast, with an exclusive clientele, is often a desirable neighbor in a single-family neighborhood.
“People just need to know what it is,” said DeLeon.
Commissioner Kathy Tovo, in particular, wanted to know who had been notified about the project, and when. And Commissioner Ben DeLeon closely questioned the neighbors about why they had not contacted the couple sooner.
Gavino Fernandez said the plans for a hotel raised, once more, the issue of a corridor plan for East Cesar Chavez. Fernandez said the neighborhoods would approach Austin Energy to ask for $100,000 for a corridor study. If the city is not going to listen to neighborhood concerns and presentations, Fernandez said, then the neighbors will have to create their own plans.
“We do not want to see Cesar Chavez become a 24-hour avenue,” Fernandez said. “We need you to help us, to assist us. I don’t know what it’s going to take.”
Sutzer agreed, reluctantly, to a two-week delay, given that the conditional use permit would not have to go to Council. To make the project work would require getting the renovation done and the hotel up and running by next January. That would give the couple two months to be ready for South by Southwest.
Business from South by Southwest next year will be critical to making the hotel viable, Sutzer said. Sutzer agreed to meet with local neighbors at the Terrazas Branch Library up the street, with the intention of bringing the case back to the Planning Commission on Jan. 26.