The Observer Newspapers |

July 11, 2008

Planners Make Right Choice on Downtown Hotel Plan

Kudos to the Herndon Planning Commission for unanimously approving the Diamond hotel project in downtown Herndon on Monday night. The commissioners made the right decision for the town.

The Diamond hotel project is the first substantial development plan in the downtown area that has survived the concept stages since the TPI building replaced the abandoned gas station at the corner of Elden and Spring streets.

This hotel will contribute to the town on a number of different levels. It will provide more tax revenue for the town. It will benefit the downtown retail businesses and services, all the more so because the developers plan to open an extended-stay hotel whose guests will be more likely to spend some time exploring Herndon.

Two of the planning commissioners said they were hesitant about the project until they heard the speakers at Monday night's public hearing, people from all across Herndon who spoke overwhelmingly in favor of the project.

There is no such thing in this world as a perfect development plan, but commission member Bernadette Bettard put it well when she said "the positives far outweigh the negatives." The bottom line is that Diamond has been an extremely cooperative developer who has gone out of its way to mold the project into something the residents, business operators and town leaders would appreciate.

When I first got wind of Diamond's proposal, I wrote a column warning the town to take action. The design was awful. It looked like a prison building, maximizing the development space and towering over the downtown area right at one of the most-used intersections in town.

Since then, the developer has held a dozen community meetings and has been working with town staff and others to address concerns about the design, size and access points for the project. Diamond has increased the production costs by adding architectural flair to make the building more appealing. It has reduced the total room count to make space for changes that will improve aesthetics.

In talking to residents and business owners, especially those in downtown Herndon, I have heard few people say they did not want this hotel to be built in this location. While there has been squabbling over this detail or that, everyone I've talked to has said this hotel would be a good thing for the town.

Diamond should be commended for their willingness to work with the town government, which is notoriously hard on developers and business owners, and for listening to town residents to improve the building's architecture and presence on the block. The developer even plans to build the building to modern environmental standards and to make it LEED certified, an expensive and challenging certification for today's "green" buildings.

The Diamond project will now be discussed, debated and, I hope, improved by the Herndon Town Council. There has been no clear consensus from Town Council members about how they feel about the plan, but I hope they will strongly consider the developer's interest in making the hotel fit in with the town and the public's apparent strong support for this project.

If we are still hopeful of finding a developer to build an arts center and other downtown Herndon amenities, let's let the Diamond project lead the way for other developers to recognize that downtown Herndon is a good investment.

Who knows? Perhaps by approving the Diamond hotel plan the Town Council may even open the door for future improvement of the dreaded Pines Shopping Center.