Developer gets OK for hotel on La. 1

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Oct 25, 2008 - Page: 5B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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PORT ALLEN — A developer has been given the green light to build a hotel adjacent to La. 1 by a vote of the West Baton Rouge Parish Council.

Council members decided 6-3 Thursday night to rezone the property at 4133 La. 1 so the hotel could be built by one the parish’s busiest thoroughfares.

Council members Jeff Kershaw, Lisa Johnson and Phil Porto Jr. voted against rezoning the property.

Kershaw said Friday he opposed rezoning the site because he doesn’t think building a hotel near a residential area is a good idea.

Kershaw said he would prefer to see the proposed hotel built farther north near Wal-Mart.

Also on Friday, other council members who voted in favor of rezoning the property said the increased tax revenue the proposed hotel would bring to the parish was a factor in their votes.

One of them, Councilman Ricky Loupe, said the vote was an extremely tough decision for him to make because he empathizes with the residents of Fairview Estates, a subdivision near the site of the proposed hotel.

Loupe, however, said that when the property was first purchased by the developer, the zoning ordinance at the time would have allowed the developer to build a hotel without approval from the council.

That zoning ordinance was later amended to require the owner of the property to seek a zoning change by a vote of the Parish Council, Loupe said.

Other factors in favor of the rezoning Loupe said he considered were concessions the developer made.

Among  the concessions were moving the proposed hotel to the north end of the property, away from Fairview Estates, and a promise to build a privacy fence to shield the hotel from Fairview residents once it is built.

Developer Jason Creighton, who owns the property, said Friday the positive effects of locating the hotel at that site outweigh the negatives.

In addition to generating tax revenue for the parish, Creighton said, contract workers staying at the hotel would patronize several of the nearby businesses and help the area grow economically.