No Hotel In Residential E. Venice Avenue Area

Venice City Council may soon vote to either rezone or grant a waiver to existing zoning restrictions for a parcel of land at 1540 East Venice Avenue. The purpose of such a change would be to permit the development of a three story hotel on the site. The signatories of this petition wish to convey our strong opposition to such a change. 

 A hotel inherently comes with specific needs of size,  amenities, signage, parking issues, lighting issues, hours of operation and traffic amount and flow. By allowing a hotel to be built at the 1540 East Venice Avenue location it would negatively impact the following, all of which revolve around, the quality of life currently experienced in our  neighborhoods:  

• A three story hotel not counting roof structure and air conditioning placement would tower over several condominium communities and cast its shadow on a daily basis. If individual doors for each room lead to the exterior of the building, then the people of the very close-by communities would be subject to open and shut slamming at all hours of the night and day. 
• One of the amenities would be a pool with a location of just feet away from the Casa del Lago 900 building. These residents as well as the Gondola Condominium residents located on the South side of their complex would hear the noise at a magnified volume as water carries sound and around tall buildings the sound is amplified as if in a canyon.
• All hotels have signage both at each entrance and exit to their structure.  Not only will all night signage lighting be placed on East Venice Ave but it will also light a good portion of Auburn Lakes Road, directly in front of the condos at Gondola which sit a few feet away at the other side of the street.
• A 90 room hotel will of course require adequate parking. The parking lot of the hotel combined with that of the Eye Associates will now cover any and all remaining area of green space, further destroying the community quality of life with car doors and trunks slamming open and shut at all hours, headlights glaring into our windows, as quite a few units face directly at the proposed site of development. Horns beeping and safety lock alarms on cars going off at whim.
• The lighting that a hotel would require in their parking lots and around their buildings would brightly burn all night long so as to ensure the safety of their transient patronage and emanate and artificial glow that will invade the homes of the the closest communities as well as lure the just passing through traveler in.
• A hotel's hours of operation are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week allowing the people of the communities no respite from this commercial venture that benefits no one that lives here.
• The increase of traffic flow would now cause Auburn Lakes Road to become a main thoroughfare. This road at present is used by nearly all the residents of the surrounding communities whether walking, biking, skateboarding, driving etc. It is quiet and tree lined. It borders on Vista del Lago which at present is a private road supported by that community's owners. It will soon become a cut through as there is not way to keep that traffic out. The people are transient, know nothing of the good people that reside here year round or their communities and will do whatever is most convenient for them. The hotel's location will up the amount of traffic coming down East Venice Avenue and increase the exiting traffic on Auburn Lakes Road to an intolerable level. It must be noted that School Buses pick up and drop off children on this road.
• Future communities and property devaluation – Presently two new residential communities are slated for East Venice Avenue. Courtyard homes closer to Rte 41 and villas next to Auburn Woods. East Venice Ave is a mixed residential area with small convenient businesses, doctor's offices, hair and nail salons, small restaurants, décor showrooms, grocery stores, accountants, lawyers and a variety of other 9AM-5PM small professional and private firms. Each of the businesses cater to the residents not tourists. Our physical profile is low and includes lots of green space.  The presence of a hotel at this location will devalue all the nearest properties. The market for buyers is limited by the presence of a hotel out one's front door and front windows.
• The comprehensive town plan and the PUD simply currently do not support the placement of a hotel at the East Venice Avenue location. Those current restrictions were put in the PUD for a reason......to protect the residential and small business flavor of our neighborhoods.