Mayor Breaks Tie, Bed & Breakfast Moves on to Council

Mayor Kevin Burns cast the deciding vote Monday night to recommend City Council approval a bed and breakfast in a residential home on Peyton Street.

At a Committee of the Whole meeting, aldermen heard testimony from the property owner, Linda Lydon, who would move into the home and operate it as a bed and breakfast if she wins council approval. They also heard comments from a number of neighbors who were .

“All of us who are homeowners in the area have spoken at the Plan Commission meetings to (oppose this) noisy operation that’s being proposed," said Norm Hoube, 116 Ford St. "A hundred percent of us said we didn’t want this, and we were totally ignored … If you vote to let this happen, you’re literally going to screw up your own historic district.”

The home at 109 Peyton presently is rented and operates as a duplex. It was built in the 1840s, and has undergone a number of recent improvements.

Prior to discussion of the special use permit, the Committee of the Whole voted in favor of amending the bed-and-breakfast ordinance. If OK'd by the council, a B&B could have up to five rooms, would not have to abut a major thoroughfare such as a state route, and guests would be allowed to stay for as along as eight days.

The Plan Commission previously had voted 8-1 to recommend City Council approval of a special use permit. To be recommended, a project has to pass all nine of the special-use standards, which include everything from ingress and egress to drainage to traffic impact to whether the proposed use would hurt property values of its neighbors or the character of the surrounding neighborhood.

Those last two standards were the sticking point for many of the aldermen who voted "no."

"I fail to see how the value of the property is not changed by the sudden proximity to a business," 5th Ward Alderman Craig Maladra said. "You moved into a neighbhood and now you find yourself next to a business."

Fourth Ward Alderman Dorothy Flanagan disagreed.

"I think that this property being a bed and breakfast would probably improve it rather than it being a duplex," she said. "So I think it does add to the value of the neighborhood. I know it would certainly improve it from what it’s currently at."

Voting "nay" were aldermen Chuck Brown, Richard Marks, Ralph Dantino, Ray Pawlak and Maladra.

"Yea" votes came from Flanagan, Sam Hill, Bob Piper, Ron Singer and Dawn Vogelsberg, with Burns casting the deciding vote that will move the debate to the City Council.

"Respectfully speaking, I think those opposed to the project did not make convincing nor factual statements as to why it should not be supported," Burns said after Committee of the Whole adjourned. "I shared that with them in a private meeting, I shared a summary of that with the council, and I was consistent in my word that, in fact, if it should come to a tie vote that I would support the petition."