Lehi parents oppose hotel planned behind homes
Melanie Platt looks out the window of her home at back yards and the neighboring plot where a hotel development is planned on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 in Lehi. Platt and some of her neighbors oppose the building of the 4-story hotel. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
A view of the back yard at Melanie Platt's home on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 in Lehi. Platt and other residents oppose the planned hotel to be built on the lot on the other side of the wall in the photo. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
An image of the planned hotel layout is displayed on a computer screen at Melanie Platt's home on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 in Lehi. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
A view of the back yard at Melanie Platt's home on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 in Lehi. Platt and other residents oppose the planned hotel to be built on the lot on the other side of the wall in the photo. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
A view of the back yard at Melanie Platt's home on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 in Lehi. Platt and other residents oppose the planned hotel to be built on the lot on the other side of the wall in the photo. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
A view from Melanie Platt's house of back yards and the lot where a hotel development was planned on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 in Lehi. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
A proposal by Holiday Inn Express and Suites investors has some young Lehi mothers losing sleep at night with worry.
“In my wildest dreams I never thought it would be allowed to build a hotel backed right up against residential homes where children are,” resident Melanie Platt said.
The hotel chain has plans to build a four-story hotel at 3851 N. Thanksgiving Way. Guests will have a view of Timpanogos Mountain to the east and children playing in backyards to the west.
The possibility of people watching their children from hotel windows has neighbors Platt and Hayley Dye alarmed.
“I really do lose sleep over it at night,” Dye said.
The Lehi Planning Commission approved the hotel concept plan and will consider site-plan approval at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lehi City Hall, 153 N. 100 East.
“This is a commercial zone we’re looking at … the hotel is a permitted use,” Lehi City Planner Mike West said. “The only reason to deny it would be if it didn’t meet the codes here.”
The plans do meet code, he said. And while not required by the code, the developer has offered to install landscaping trees to buffer the view and noise for the residents, West said.
There is additionally a setback of 90 feet from the hotel rooms to the property line. The indoor pool and food bar are part of a one-story extension at the back of the hotel where there will be no view of the backyards.
After the site approval, approval of the building permit will be next, West said.
Residents in Thanksgiving Meadows think there is enough in the city code to stop hotel development, Platt said.
Lehi Development Code Chapter 8.20.030 A states that if a proposed project annoys, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of three or more persons, there is sufficient reason not to approve the application.
“The Holiday Inn and its patrons pose considerable concern for the health and safety for our families, both parents and children,” said Thanksgiving Meadows resident Chris Whitchurch in a letter to the city.
“It doesn’t have to pass if it concerns the health and well-being of the residents,” Dye said.
Dye’s family moved to Thanksgiving Meadows 15 years ago and always thought development would move in similar to other nearby commercial uses — perhaps restaurants or an office building.
She was caught totally off guard with the hotel plans.
“It was in July. We got a letter from the Lehi City Planning Commission,” Dye said. “[I was] mad as heck. I seriously started crying. I was really upset.”
Lone Peak Trailers sold approximately 2.5 acres to MCI, and MCI has a contract with Holiday Inn Express based on the condition the city approves its property use for a hotel.
When Platt’s family moved to Thanksgiving Meadows in May 2015, she said they had no knowledge of the plans for a hotel looking into their backyard.
“That this was just Lone Peak Trailers, and although it wasn’t a pretty view, you know with the trailers it maintained our privacy and we were OK with that,” Platt said.
When she realized a hotel might build on the property, one of the first thoughts Dye said she had was for the safety of her children.
“Maybe a good guy who does just come here to go to his meetings, you know, it’s not going to even enter his mind,” Dye said. “They will be a target for those who would take advantage and cause them harm.
“They will be watching the kids, they are going to know where the bedrooms are, they’ll know how many kids we have, they’re going to know when to enter the house; and my 8-year-old can climb over that fence and back over; it’s not going to keep a grown person from climbing the fence and entering my house.”
Platt has done her research and found there are no other hotels in Lehi that back a residential community. They are all backed by other commercial properties.
“They are surrounded by commercial,” Platt said. “I looked at hotels from Murray to Provo and I couldn’t find one that backed residential homes. They are in the middle of commercial zoning.”
Thanksgiving Meadows residents attended the first meeting in July and felt like they had the support of city officials until the next meeting, when all support was swept away by the law.
“Boom, they walked in with their attorney, and then they walked right out with their approval,” Dye said.
