Fight SAGA! Save the Manteo waterfront!

We are writing to express our opposition to a change to the zoning to allow waterfront hotels to be treated as schools, churches, and governmental buildings by the following proposed changes:

 --expand waterfront hotels from a height of 36 feet to a height of 44 feet

-- remove the restrictions on the maximum size from 20,000 square feet total building area to no size limitation. 

This zoning change is drastically different from the current approved zoning in Article VIII and does not match the approved Marshes Light Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for The Inn at Marshes Light. 

The Conditional Use Permit has outlined two buildings of 30 rooms each. SAGA shared with the Marshes Light owners and a few citizens that they planned to  propose a 20% increase to the square footage for The Inn at Marshes Light to incorporate a restaurant and an event center; the event center is planned to house between 175 to 300 guests. This desired plan for development of the Inn could drastically change with a proposed revision to the CUP if a zoning text amendment for all waterfront hotels with no limit to size and greater height was approved by the Town.

Our concern isn't whether the Town of Manteo should allow SAGA to build a hotel in Marshes Light; this was approved by the town many years ago after extensive study and citizen input.  Our concern is that the CUP and the current zoning does not permit a building to be larger than 20,000 square feet. Increasing the footprint of the hotel that includes an event center and a restaurant will increase the density beyond what the town can handle.  It will compound the issue the town already has with parking; it will increase traffic and congestion and it will increase noise and light pollution.  A smaller hotel without a restaurant and an event center will not require changes to the Conditional Use Permit or zoning, and it will increase business to other local event venues, restaurants, and retail shops.

The Town of Manteo CAMA Plan emphasizes maintaining a small town character, hometown sense of community, and history.  The proposed SAGA plan jeopardizes the small town feel and sense of community that we all value.  

When SAGA purchased the Marshes Light Development, they were aware of the zoning restrictions and the Conditional Use Permit.  The CUP and the zoning laws were put in place to protect the citizens of the Town of Manteo.  In presentations to the Marshes Light HOA and residents of the Town of Manteo, SAGA has indicated they will build a hotel, a restaurant and an event center and they will leave.   We will still be here.

We respectfully ask the commissioners to honor the Conditional Use Permit and the zoning that is currently in place.