Geneva bed-and-breakfast approved over neighbors' objections

The Geneva Inn bed-and-breakfast inn got the Geneva city council's permission Monday to do business at 109 Peyton St.

And this week, the mayor didn't have to cast a tiebreaking vote, as one of the naysayers from last week's vote by the committee of the whole voted “aye.”

Alderman Craig Maladra changed his mind, leading to a 6-4 vote in favor of granting the special use.

“This is one of the few times where I am uncertain about what to do. My gut tells me one thing ... but what it is telling me is based on feeling, a very strong feeling, but is that fact? We are called on to make decisions based on fact,” he said.

Maladra still doesn't believe it is fair for people who bought homes in a residential neighborhood to have a business plopped next to them (“it may be low- intensity use, but so is a law office, and that is a business,” he said). But neighbors' worries about deleterious effects weren't supported by evidence.

Neighbors again asked the council to deny the request. They said extra traffic from the guests will exacerbate an existing problem with backups and parking on Peyton, and noise from commercial trash pickup, deliveries, guests coming and going and guests socializing outdoors will disrupt their ability to enjoy their own properties.

“This should not be a referendum on B&Bs,” said John Hoelscher, who lives across the street. But he said the location is wrong, and took an opposite stand of Maladra: “Because we don't know (whether it will hurt property values), we should vote ‘no,'” he said.

Owner Linda Lydon proposed a two-phase project to turn the house, a single-family residence that then became a rooming house that then became a two-flat, into an inn.

In the first phase, there would be four guest rooms. In the second, the existing one-story garage will be torn down, and a new one built, with an apartment above it for her to live in. That would enable a fifth bedroom in the house to become a guest room.

The inn is in the 1st Ward; its two aldermen split on the vote, with Alderman Sam Hill voting for it and Alderman Chuck Brown voting against it. Brown said he had many unanswered questions about the proposal, and wondered why the city's plan commissioners didn't seem to have raised any questions themselves about the plan when it was before them. The plan commission recommended approval of the request.

Bed-and-breakfast inns are allowed only as a special use in residential districts, meaning they must meet certain criteria about whether they will harm neighboring properties and undergo public hearing before the plan commission. The inns are only allowed within 500 feet of a business district, and the property must be contiguous to either Route 38, Route 31 or Route 25. The Geneva Inn is on the northwest corner of Peyton and Route 31.

If the property changes hands, the new owner would have to apply again for the special use if he or she wanted to use it as an inn. And the city will judge the inn's impact on traffic, parking and the residential character before granting any building permits for the second phase.