Board approves reduced parking-stall dimensions for proposed Drury hotel in Rock Run Collection

The Joliet Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-0 to approve a variation allowing 9-by-18-foot parking stalls for a proposed Drury hotel at the northeast corner of Gateway Boulevard and Sandstone Drive in the Rock Run Collection planned unit development.

Planning staff said the property is approximately three acres with multiple landscape buffers and utility/drainage easements (a 20-foot Gateway Boulevard buffer, a 25-foot utility and drainage easement at the southwest corner, a 15-foot utility easement along the east property line, and a 10-foot landscape buffer on the north) that constrain the developable area. The Rock Run Collection guidelines allow 9-by-18-foot stalls for parking decks, and staff noted the proposed stall size is common in commercial locations.

Jack Shelton, representing Drury Hotels, said the company’s portfolio uses 9-by-18-foot stalls and that in their experience the size accommodates SUVs and minivans: "To note so our entire portfolio, we have 24,000 spaces. They are all 9 by 18, and we have no issues in other locations." The applicant’s concept plan shows 180 parking spaces, consistent with the planned unit development requirement of one space per hotel room.

Given the site constraints and precedent, staff recommended approval, and the board voted 4-0. The applicant may proceed with subsequent permit and engineering reviews.