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Montpelier panel approves plan to convert 140 Main Street to 12‑room boutique hotel
Summary
The Montpelier Design Review Committee approved alterations to 140 Main Street that would convert the existing office building and carriage house into a boutique hotel with exterior decking, parking changes and an ADA access route, pending river hazard approval from the state.
The Montpelier Design Review Committee on Monday approved a proposal by Malone Packard Road Properties LLC to convert the office building at 140 Main Street and its carriage house into a boutique hotel with 12 guest rooms and a single night-manager’s unit.
The application, presented by applicant Alicia Feiler, calls for three units on both the first and second floors of the carriage house and interior revisions on the main house’s first and second floors. "The project is proposing to convert the existing office building ... to a boutique hotel. So there would be 12 rooms," Feiler said during the meeting.
Why it matters: the site fronts both Main Street and the river and sits inside the city’s Design Review District, so the commission reviewed the project against the design-review standards for historic materials, fenestration, roof equipment screening and landscaping. The committee concluded the proposed exterior changes are compatible with the district but asked the applicants to obtain river-hazard approval from the state before the zoning permit is issued.
Most of the visible exterior work is limited. The applicants plan a low deck off the building’s southern octagonal portion with railings intended to match the front porch, new landscaping to screen the deck underside, paved parking in place of existing gravel with two additional parking spaces, and an ADA-accessible walkway from Main Street that wraps to a northern entry point. Feiler told the committee there will not be an elevator.
Committee members asked about changes since the project’s Historic Preservation Commission review; Feiler said the third-floor dormers will remain unchanged and that Juliet balconies will replace prior balcony proposals on the carriage-house riverside. Feiler also said the applicants plan to mimic the front porch railing for the new deck and to screen rooftop mechanical units with an extended railing on the flat roof that is not intended as a pedestrian space.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the application as proposed. Meredith Crandall, the city staff member who reads the design-review criteria, said she would prepare the administrative site-plan report and hold issuance of the zoning permit until state river-hazard approval is obtained. "I want to wait for the river hazard approval before I issue the zoning permit," Crandall said.
Next steps: the applicants were told to coordinate timing with the state river-hazard review; once that approval is in place the city will issue the permit paperwork and the applicants can proceed with the zoning-appeal posting and building permit process.
