The Upper Merion Board of Supervisors has turned down a proposal to build a 148-room hotel on Route 202 in King of Prussia because there is no emergency- access road around the perimeter of the property.
The board voted, 3-2, at a meeting Monday night to reject the Franklin Hospitality Corp.'s plan to build a five-story, mid-priced hotel on a vacant lot about a half-mile north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The township Planning Commission recommended last month that the plan be turned down
because of traffic and safety problems.
"I'd like to see you build your hotel, but it is overbuilt for its size and environmental constraints," said Supervisor William Smith, who made the motion to deny the plan.
Voting with Smith were Supervisors Van Weiss and Ralph P. Volpe. Voting in favor of the proposal were Supervisors Lydia Garcia and Hunter R. Robinson.
For the plan to be approved, the company would have to build an emergency- access road around the perimeter of the 14,500-square-foot lot, Smith said.
But Edward J. Ozorowski, an attorney representing the Columbus, Ohio-based hotel and restaurant chain, said he thought an emergency road was not needed,
because the hotel was going to have sprinklers.
"I thought we were given the option, and we opted for sprinklers," he said.
The most the company could do, he said, was to install a fire lane behind the hotel. However, because the lane would not have an outlet, emergency vehicles would have to turn around or back out.
Another problem with the plan, the supervisors said, was that the lot, wedged between two service stations, was too close to other businesses along Route 202. They said it would be unsafe to add another access drive, and recommended that the company build a single access lane to accommodate five nearby businesses.
According to Ron Leslie, a vice president for the company, the hotel would not generate a great deal of traffic because most of its guests would be business people who would arrive at the hotel in airport limousines.
"It's not a traffic-intensive business," Leslie said. "Probably a funeral home is the only business that generates less traffic than we do."
He said that there would be no more than 11 employees on one shift, and that only about 70 percent of the hotel's 155 parking spaces would be filled at one time.
