The debate over whether Aiken's downtown height limit should be increased by 25 feet appears to have boiled down to the issues of preferential treatment, historic over modern and keeping the "unique" in Aiken.
Those sentiments overpowered City Council's Monday meeting, where Council made the first of two votes on increasing the maximum height limit in Aiken's downtown from 50 feet to 75 feet.
Council agreed in a 5-to-2 vote to increase the height limit; members Reggie Ebner and Dick Dewar voted against the zoning ordinance change.
The discussion of increasing downtown's height limit, which has been in place since the 1970s, only came to light after local hotel owner Neel Shah approached the City with plans to gut and revitalize Hotel Aiken on Richland Avenue.
An addition to those plans includes action on the City's end to build a public parking garage with funds stemming from the City's recently adopted 1 percent hospitality tax. Officials have said a potential location for the garage would be the motel section of Hotel Aiken that Shah intends to tear down.
Shah said he plans to construct a six- to seven-story addition adjacent to the hotel on the Newberry Street side, bringing the hotel to a total of about 85 rooms, he said. Renderings of the addition show queen- and king-size rooms, a dining area, a possible exercise room on the bottom floor and a rooftop bar and grill.
Hotel Aiken was built in 1898, and was last renovated in 2001, according to the hotel's website. The website also states the current hotel has 68 rooms, three floors and is rated two stars.
"(Hotel Aiken) is not in the very best of condition, I can tell you," Shah said Monday. "I'd say it's running at 30 to 40 percent; it's not a very high-rated business, I'll be honest with you. (The renovations) would improve the occupancy. ... It will bring people in and add an economic impact."
But those statements didn't sway many Aiken residents Monday, who said they agree the hotel needs renovations, but a height increase is not needed.
In an Aiken Standard letter to the editor published this week, resident and local real estate agent Jane Page Thompson questioned why the five Council members who agreed to the height change would consider the increase at all.
"In the last five to nine years, City Council has declined raising building heights in order to protect the character of our downtown," Thompson wrote. "Why are they willing to consider reneging on their assurances made to citizens in the last several cases to allow for a Marriott or Hilton now? The Carriage House Inn has managed to build a new wing, more than tripling their current size, without any help from the City - in some cases, despite the City."
Thompson also said Council and other City commissions have struck down height changes on private residences, commercial development and even a church.
City officials and Shah discussed utilizing a franchise, such as Marriott, to invest into the hotel. Shah said that investment could be between $9 million and $10 million. Shah said there is show of "serious interest," but so far he has not received nor signed a formal contract with a franchise.
"Shah didn't say it was a Marriott, he said he didn't know yet; what else do you not know about this?" Thompson said during a public comment session in Monday's meeting.
Anne Thomasson, the owner of the Carriage House Inn on Laurens Street, bought and restored the former home in 1987, recently receiving the Stewardship Award from the Historic Aiken Foundation for being a good steward of the property at 139 Laurens St.
Thomasson still is in the midst of constructing an additional wing behind the current inn. She said she requested an increase to the height in the beginning design stages of her addition, but was denied by the City.
Thomasson said she has worked hard with the inn and the new wing to keep with downtown Aiken's aesthetic, and to add a bit of a "Charleston feel." The new wing's construction started around May, and by the end of the year, more than 20 extra rooms to the bed and breakfast should be completed, she said.
The inn originally was called the Efron House, built in 1895, and the current brick warehouse on the property was built in the 1930s and used as a taxi garage. The warehouse now is used as apartments adjacent to the inn. The construction and renovations, Thomasson said, are three to five years in the making.
Shah said he is working with The RBA Group, which he said is a "renowned firm that works with high-end projects in downtown districts, such as Aiken."
Shah said the idea is to keep Hotel Aiken's historical nature, being that it "made Aiken what it is today."
The future addition, he said, would actually stand between 65 feet and 70 feet and include the rooftop bar and grill.
Thomasson said she understands the state of Hotel Aiken - she once was actually in the running to purchase the property - but said right now, there are just more questions than answers.
"I think there needs to be deeper digging into all of the changes of this hotel because there just isn't a lot to go by at this point," she said.
Aside from the two renderings Shah has provided to the City, he told Council he anticipates construction and renovation running about 12 to 15 months. He said he does have an architect, and feels that by mid-September, the hotel would have its franchise approval and be ready to start architectural drawings.
Council member Lessie Price, who voted for the height increase, asked Shah if Marriott would back out if Council does not grant the height increase on its second vote.
Marriott, Shah said, "will work with us."
The discussion of downtown's height increase is expected to go back to City Council for a second vote at 7 p.m. Monday, July 13.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. An Atlanta native, she has a mass communications-journalism degree with the University of North Carolina Asheville. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchechter.