Marble Falls City Council paves way for Fairfield Inn
CONNIE SWINNEY • STAFF WRITER
MARBLE FALLS — Jodi Jack and her neighbors had a few reservations about the prospect of a third hotel in La Ventana until the private developer struck a deal with not only the city of Marble Falls but the property owners’ association as well.
“We were very concerned about a third hotel, and the traffic on La Ventana Drive would have been huge,” said Jack, who is president of the La Ventana Property Owners’ Association. “We have a community with restrictions, and to have a hotel there that didn’t conform to our building standards? We just wanted them to keep the continuity of our neighborhood.”
On April 4, the Marble Falls City Council cleared the way for a four-story, 87-room Fairfield Inn and Suites on two acres by approving a rezoning application for the project.
The hotel, proposed in the southwest corner of La Ventana Drive just off U.S. 281, will join La Quinta Inn and Suites and Holiday Inn Express in the subdivision that includes dozens of residences and First Baptist Church of Marble Falls.
The subdivision, on U.S. 281 in southern Marble Falls, is also home to Northstar Bank, a dentist’s office, and an adjacent dermatology facility under construction.
“Adding hotels to a market which has been having good solid hotel/motel sales tax growth, the revenues year after year have been going up,” Marble Falls Assistant City Manager Caleb Kraenzel said. “When we keep trending up year after year, sooner or later, a hotel operator is going to notice that and say, ‘There’s an opportunity to grow.’”
The tract property owner, Gib Shackelford, worked with private hotel developer Raj Patel to launch the project.
That partnership coupled with a willingness to adhere to existing architectural deed restrictions created a more palatable scenario for residents.
“We met with Mr. Patel, and he was very gracious and happy to work with us. The church was part of this, too,” Jack said. “They also agreed to pay for sentinels (signage) to differentiate between the business and the residential (area) to, hopefully, limit the business traffic from coming into the neighborhood.”
Another aspect of the deal involved redirecting the flow of hotel guest traffic in the subdivision onto U.S. 281.
“(The private developer is) also going to be constructing a private access drive. It will be north/south,” Kraenzel said. “It will connect La Ventana Drive to Corazon or Bendito Way near where the entrance of the Holiday Inn is.
“It will be a driveway that connects the two streets so, basically, folks can leave the hotel and they can go to the lighted intersection (on U.S. 281) to the south instead of only exiting on La Ventana Drive,” he added.
Part of the agreement to rezone the tract involved meeting a few construction deadlines as well.
The developer must obtain or qualify for a building permit within a year and complete construction within two years or the tract would revert back to the original zoned status, according to stipulations of the amended ordinance.
“We came up with a solution that everyone can live with and be happy about,” Jack said. “They will be good neighbors.”
Construction on the Fairfield Inn is expected to get underway this summer.
3 thoughts on “Marble Falls City Council paves way for Fairfield Inn”
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Glad to see more development! Small-town folks do well to remember that these hotels bring customers, tax dollars, and many other added benefits to the town. The days of MF being a sleepy little town ended 20 years ago. It may be sad for some, and I get that, but it is reality nonetheless. As I’ve said before, guiding development and working with developers is better than opposing it at every turn.
It sounds like there was a lot of conversation with regard to this development and it’s neighbors. I applaud the conversations and attempts to compromise! So often people have blanket “no!’s” to any sort of build without considering a win-win. Kudos to all involved.
You have to remember these thing in regards to growth. For everything gained there is a loss. There is a proside and a downside. Anything can only grow so much and you can’t grow forever.
Steve, I agree with you. There are absolutely pros and cons to everything – change or no change at all included.
I would just say that growth in the region is inevitable given the growth in the Austin metro area…Marble Falls is a not-so-distant extension of that regardless of how folks feel about it. While I get excited about growth, I know that not everyone does, and I respect that. My point is that all voices should be a part of the conversation to help guide inevitable growth in the best possible way. It’s going to happen one way or another; squashing it isn’t a viable option. Working with city leaders and developers is an option.