by KRISTIN LARMORE
Intern News Reporter

Boone Town Council approved developers’ plans, three years in the making, for a new four-story Courtyard by Marriot for the Boone area based on a rezoning change.

The site is located on N.C. Highway 105 next to Peabody’s Beer and Wine.

A Courtyard by Marriot will be built on N.C. Highway 105. Concerned town residents prevented the construction proposal until now. Photo by James Fay

It has been changed from a split of General Business (B3) and Single-Family Residential (R1) to Conditional Use Business based on the new plan, unanimously approved Nov. 20 at the Town Council meeting.

Concerns of town residents living behind the property, however, have prevented construction up until now.

If part of the property remained under B3 regulations, neighbors would have no say in what might be developed on that section, and the neighborhood would have no protection.

Boone resident Lynn White, who lives behind the property, said at the meeting the community deserves a reasonable boundary, as a 15 to 22-foot barrier does not adequately buffer noise levels.

Now that the entire property is conditional business, Mayor Pro-Tem Lynn O. Mason said the developers must go above and beyond to address issues such as lighting and buffers.

Town Council member Janet Pepin said non-developers forget how every change to the plan costs money, and neighbor’s concerns were fully heard and addressed to the best of developers’ ability.

The amount of money developers are willing to spend to please residents, about a half million to retain the current state of the property, indicates a need for more motel rooms.

Mason said the council depends on the developer to project the need for new buildings in Boone.

“We have to count on the people proposing these projects that they have done market studies,” she said.

Mason serves on the Tourism Development Authority and said there seems to be a continuing tourist demand for more hotel rooms.

Boone Fairfield Inn and Suites’ Manger Stacey E. Church disagrees.

She said there is no need for a new hotel in town.

Some existing hotels in Boone seem to be filling up consistently, however.

Football gamers and tourists sometimes call every hotel in town to find a room and sometimes have no luck, Guest Services Manager of Holiday Inn Express, Casey A. Lebron, said.

Lebron feels it will increase the reputation of Appalachian State University and will further accommodate the larger number of guests coming to visit.

“I can’t say it’s a bad thing,” she said. “It is only going to increase the value of [students’] degree[s].”
Football, especially, has brought a larger number of students to the university.

“All the attention to Appalachian has definitely increased our occupancy,” Lebron said.

Even though the roads are more crowded, Lebron and Holiday Inn Express employee Kelli L. Galloway do not think there is a way to stop the crowding and tourism.

Traffic will be affected, but the town is taking measures to create the most effective plan.

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