“I don’t want this project to die because of parking.”
The plan for a 128-room, 5-story Residence by Marriott hotel in Grand Haven only include 89 parking spaces, 39 short of the city’s one space for every room requirement, but it still has the support of councilman Kevin McLaughlin.
“Whatever we have to do to make this work I think we have to.”
Developer Peter Beukema, of 6PM Hospitality says they are trying but so far not finding 39 additional parking spaces near the proposed hotel on Washington Avenue.
“A lot of the conversations we have had have been hey we would love to help you, but we already have 4 people ahead of you.”
The city does not permit overnight street parking and Mayor Bob Monetza says lifting the ban around the hotel would not solve the problem.
“It would be full all of the time with other people parking there because it would be legal for anybody.”
And while the developer keeps looking for more spaces, in a few years resident Ryan Cotton doesn’t think parking will be an issue.
“Within 10 years many of us will be using our apps and getting autonomous vehicles to pick us up and they won’t need any place to park parking ramps will become dinosaurs.”
