By Donald Wittkowski
As the project moves closer to a possible vote next month, the developer of a proposed condo-hotel has submitted a series of changes in response to concerns raised by the Ocean City Planning Board and members of the public.
The six-story Soleil Resort, proposed by Select Properties Inc. of Colmar, Pa., retains the same basic design and a total of 111 units, but the plans have been tweaked in advance of the Planning Board’s April 6 meeting.
A decision whether to approve Soleil’s site plan may finally come following two stormy board meetings in January and February that included plenty of debate but no vote.
Board members have pressed Soleil’s team of professional consultants for more details about parking, traffic flow and hotel operations amid questions about the project’s impact on the neighborhoods and roads that surround the development site at 11th Street and Ocean Avenue.
New changes to Soleil include more directional signs, a new circulation pattern to handle traffic, a larger hotel lobby, more storage and housekeeping space and public bathrooms for a rooftop pool.
The revisions are being met with new demands from the city’s planning and engineering experts for more information.
“The applicant should provide testimony relating to the proposed site circulation plan. Issues relating to hotel patrons, suppliers, Flanders access, emergency vehicles and solid waste removal should be addressed,” David Scheidegg, the Planning Board engineer, said in a newly released memo about the changes.
Key revisions for handling traffic flow include the main accessway, the width of the driveways and eliminating a previously proposed entrance to Soleil’s parking garage from 11th Street, Scheidegg noted.
Select Properties has also eliminated a proposed porte-cochere from the building’s 11th Street frontage. In addition, the developer is planning to erect a new marquee for the garage and more wayfinding signs to help with traffic flow.
How all of those elements will blend together for Soleil’s traffic circulation will require further testimony from Select Properties, Scheidegg wrote.
The project has been shadowed by complaints that it could disrupt the surrounding neighborhoods and add more congestion to streets already crowded with busy summer traffic.
However, Soleil’s representatives have tried to assure the Planning Board that parking and traffic flow will operate smoothly.
Much of the opposition to the Soleil focuses on whether it would truly operate as a hotel or is simply a poorly disguised condominium project.
Soleil’s representatives have repeatedly told the Planning Board that the complex would operate as a professionally managed hotel. Proposed changes inside the building include a bigger, more functional lobby as well as more storage and housekeeping space to serve the hotel.
“The plans contain many revisions, including housekeeping areas, loading area, refuse areas, sprinkler pump room, maintenance room, generator room and signage,” Randall Scheule, the Planning Board’s planner, said in a memo responding to Soleil’s proposed changes.
Critics have expressed doubts about Soleil’s hotel operations. Opponents from the city’s business community and the historic Flanders Hotel have been particularly outspoken. Soleil could be a formidable competitor for the nearby Flanders, which operates as a condo-hotel and is one of the city’s iconic businesses.
Select Properties changed the project to a condo-hotel complex after the Planning Board last year rejected the original plans for a straight condominium. The board has stressed that it wants a resort-style hotel as the centerpiece of the development site.
The city’s redevelopment zone where the Soleil is planned envisions “a first class year-round resort hotel.”
Select Properties has not yet disclosed the project’s development cost. The company intends to build Soleil in three stages, starting with a condo tower on Ocean Avenue, followed by the parking garage and ending with another condo tower on 11th Street.
Condo owners in Soleil would fall under a 120-day stay limit throughout the year to ensure that their units would be available to hotel guests most of the time. That means the owners would be limited to 30 days in each season, preventing them from monopolizing their units during the peak summer tourist period.
