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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

A six-story hotel or other structure could compete with the old Bemberg plant as the city’s tallest building in following a zoning ordinance change adopted by the Elizabethton Regional Planning Commission during Thursday night’s regular meeting.

The change in maximum height requirements from three stories and/or 35 feet to six stories and/or 75 feet in the B2 Arterial Business District was presented in a list of what Planning and Economic Development Director Rich DesGroseilliers called “housekeeping” items that included correcting typographical errors and matters of consistency.

“I believe this is kind of outdated,” DesGroseilliers said of the current height restriction before the vote. “B2s are our most intensive type district as far as land use type. We have the R3 (High-Density Residential) which allows building heights going up to four stories, or 50 feet. The other business districts – B3 (Central Business District), B4 (Intermediate Business District) – they allow for six stories or 75 feet, so do M1 (Restricted Manufacturing and Warehouse) and M2 (Industrial) districts. So, staff is recommending that we change the maximum height requirement to be six stories, 75 feet, as well.”

As commissioners looked over the ordinance change from three stories to six stories, Planning Commission Chair Dena Bass commented, “This is so … this is big. This is big, y’all.”

Assistant City Manager Logan Engle, who was in attendance, told commissioners, “One of the reasons that we have also talked about increasing it is because, as you all know, I’ve been working with the county on trying to attract the hotel to property that’s zoned B2. And with the three-story height requirement, what we’re hearing is that might not be tall enough. So, that’s also additional motivation for us to increase the height.

“The folks that we’ve been talking to about financial development are saying somewhere between four and six (stories),” she said. “And I think you know, Rich settled on six because it was consistent with the other commercial zoning districts, because B3 and B4 also has six stories.”

DesGroseilliers said most new hotels that are being built are at least four stories high.

“I don’t have a problem with four, I’m just looking at six,” Bass said, noting “that’s a pretty tall building when you’re coming through Elizabethton.”

The proposal before the commission included that the Elizabethton Fire Department is “comfortable with a 6-story building in a B-2 zone, as it is already permitted in other zones as well.”

Before the vote, Bass warned that the possibility of a six-story structure would not be limited to a hotel, but other businesses could be constructed at that height.

Commissioners Wes Frazier, Myles Cook, William “Bill” Taylor, and James Little voted in favor of the change, while Bass voted no. Commissioners Richard Culver and Daniel Holder were absent.

In other action commissioners approved:

— a site plan for a new O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Store next to Cline Holder Electric Supply on West Elk Avenue;

— a revised Municipal Flood Plain/Zoning Ordinance that the Planning Department said was already in the process of being updated prior to Hurricane Helene; and

 — a change in the ordinance allowing occupied trailer coaches in approved trailer courts and certain areas to remain for 180 days as opposed to 30 days. The change is in effect until July 1, 2025, at which time it will revert to 30 days.