WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The attorney representing the applicant denied a chance to develop a Main Street parcel said Friday morning that it is "too soon to say" what, if any, remedy his client will pursue.

 

Williamstown attorney Donald Dubendorf said his client, Vipul "Vinny" Patel, was "disappointed" with Thursday's Zoning Board of Appeals decision denying him four special permits needed to develop a three-story, 77-room hotel at 562 Main St., the so-called Lehovec property.

 

"I think he was disappointed, as he has every right to be," Dubendorf said. "The board acknowledged the quality of his application on several occasions [Thursday] night, and the decision wasn't based on the quality of the application. That's concerning to me.

 

"I think we're entitled, as a community, to have applicants for projects large and small to be thoughtful about impacts. Every effort was made by Mr. Patel to assess impacts, assess ways those could be mitigated and overcome. That should have been more than sufficient to justify granting the application."

 

Dubendorf said he and Patel are considering all their options.

 

"Here's the reality: The reality is the board files its decision shortly," Dubendorf said. "Then there's a 20-day appeal period. That's the immediate time frame."

 

The two options for appeal are Land Court and Superior Court, Dubendorf said.

 

"Courts can fashion the remedy," he said. "They can do a number of things," including sending the application back for a hearing or issuing the permits itself.

 

"[The court overruling the local board] seldom happens. That would be extraordinary," he said.

 

Town Manager Jason Hoch on Friday declined to speculate about how the town would respond to an appeal.

 

"I think we will review the circumstances if they present themselves," he said.

 

On Friday, Dubendorf again went through the list of special permits sought and how Patel's application sought to address potential impacts.

 

The minor relief needed from the town's maximum height requirement was a result of the developer's desire to include a gabled roof he felt is more attractive for the Main Street (Route 2) corridor.

 

"If [the town] wanted a flat roof, I'd have built a flat roof," Dubendorf said.

 

The special permit sought for relief from internal planting requirements was addressed by the project's emphasis on plantings for screening purposes — not an uncommon tradeoff in town. And the impervious coverage special permit was, again, not an unusual request, and the application had a stormwater plan already approved by the town's Conservation Commission.

 

The sticking point appeared to be the fourth special permit: a use of land in the town's Limited Business zoning district that is not "by right" but rather "by special" permit according to the zoning table.

 

"They just don't want a hotel there," Dubendorf said. "It's that simple."

 

The comments of the members of the ZBA on Thursday appear to back up that assessment.

 

Members commented on the widespread opposition to the project from residents in the Colonial Village neighborhood, many of whom attended Thursday's hearing, continued from April 20.

 

"It's been an excellent proposal," said ZBA member David Levine, a Colonial Village resident who recused himself from last year's hearing on special permit applications for a different Main Street hotel project. "Don [Dubendorf] has done an excellent job, and Mr. Patel has been very accommodating.

 

"But it still comes down to putting 23,000 'residents,' transients, next to a residential neighborhood that already has 30,000 on the other side."

 

Levine, who calculated the 23,000 "residents" figure from a 40 percent occupancy rate in the 77-room hotel, voted in the 4-1 majority denying the special permit requests.

 

Dubendorf at Thursday's hearing told the board it was conflating the "not more detrimental than pre-existing conditions" standard the board uses when granting other permits with the standard for a special permit outlined in Section 70-8.4 in the town code.

 

"That's a higher standard than 8.4, the standard we were applying under," he said on Friday morning. "Those [8.4] standards you can meet."

 

Board member Keith Davis, the dissenting vote in the 4-1 decision, agreed with Dubendorf on the standard to be met and cautioned his colleagues about being arbitrary in their decision.

 

"This is an 8.4 decision," Davis said. "In a lot of respects, it's a Development Plan Review. You look at the standards and see how the applicant addressed them.

 

"I look at this, and I think the people have done a good job of trying to look at the development standards and fit something on that parcel that meets the development standards.

 

"If a developer wants to put something in our town, the only guideline they have is the development standards. … What are we telling any future applicant who wants to develop anything in town? I think we're being arbitrary and capricious if we say, 'You followed all the development standards, but we don't like your proposal.' "

 

The commercial reality hanging over Patel's application is that he likely is in a race with Navin Shah, the successful applicant for a hotel project at 430 Main St. (the former Grand Union site).

 

It is conceivable that only one — if any — of the proposed hotels could find the chain hotel that would partner on a major project in Williamstown. As a practical matter, whichever hotel gets built first probably would have to prove itself in the market before another chain would take the leap.

 

Given that time constraint, Thursday's decision puts Patel at a competitive disadvantage in his "race" with Shah.

 

Dubendorf acknowledged that on Friday and said there is no mechanism in either Land Court or Superior Court to seek an "expedited appeal" of a permit denial.

 

"The parties could fashion something that's faster," Dubendorf said, addressing a hypothetical. "From the court, you get the timing that you get. It's the willingness of the parties to behave in one way or the other," that can affect the time-frame of a potential appeal.