A pair of text amendments to Iowa City’s central business zoning code could pave the way for the conversion of two vacant downtown hotels into residential housing units.
The first reading of the ordinance creating the two amendments was approved unanimously by the Iowa City city council Tuesday night, April 7. They would apply to the three downtown Iowa City hotels – specifically, the hotelVetro and Hotel Chauncey, which have stood empty since closing in November as part of a reported foreclosure.
Anne Russett, a senior planner in the Iowa City Neighborhood and Development Services division, said the amendments would exempt hospitality facilities, such as hotels, from two specific requirements in the city’s CB-10, or central business, zoning district – one dealing with parking requirements, the other with open space requirements. The exemptions would facilitate the hotels’ conversion to full-time residential units, if a buyer chose to make that conversion.
Ms. Russett stressed that no one has approached city development staff with an offer to purchase the two hotels, but that the zoning amendments would offer more options for potential reuse.
“We have a need for housing in our community,” she said, “and we want to make it easy for whoever purchases those buildings in the future, to provide some flexibility on how they can be used. If (a buyer) wants to maintain the hotel operations, they can do that. If they want to convert them to residential, they can do that. This ordinance makes it easier to convert those hotel rooms to residential dwelling units.”
The amendments were unanimously recommended for approval Feb. 18 by the Iowa City Planning & Zoning Commission.
The amendments would also apply to the Graduate Hotel in downtown Iowa City, but that facility continues to operate as a hotel, and there’s no indication that its operations will change anytime soon.
“These hotels represent two significant downtown buildings that remain underutilized,” city staff wrote in its memo to the council. “As Iowa City continues to experience a high demand for housing, the potential for vacant hotel sites to be converted to multi-family residential housing offers a key solution to the housing shortage. The City’s Comprehensive Plan identifies the need to increase housing supply and to provide a variety of housing types, particularly in proximity to transportation hubs, employment centers, and services such as banks, grocery stores, and medical centers. Housing located downtown supports the goals of the Comprehensive Plan as the area is walkable, reduces vehicle miles traveled for residents, and is accessible to jobs, services, and the university.”
The two amendments were proposed by city staff in direct response to the closings of the hotelVetro and Hotel Chauncey, Ms. Russett said. Under current zoning code, the two hotels would not meet minimum parking and open-space requirements, but their adaptive reuse would meet other needs in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, justifying the two amendments.
“The conversion of vacant guestrooms within hospitality-oriented retail uses to dwelling units can increase housing supply while conserving existing structures, reducing demolition costs, and maintaining the downtown’s existing urban form,” city staff wrote. “As hotelVetro and Hotel Chauncey are located in walkable areas with transit access, residents in these areas have a reduced need for reliance on a personal vehicle. Applying current residential parking and open space requirements to converted hotel properties in these areas would create barriers to adaptively reusing these buildings.”
Hotel Chauncey, located in the 15-story mixed-use Chauncey Tower at 404 E. College St., opened in early January 2020. It has 38 vacant hotel units, and the building has 60 existing residential units on its upper floors, according to Planning and Zoning Commission minutes.
hotelVetro, in the Plaza Towers building at 201 S. Linn St., opened in 2006. It has 57 vacant hotel units, and the building has 50 existing residential units on the upper floors.
The zoning amendments require two additional readings by the city council before becoming law, Ms. Russett said.
