Residents not Happy about Plan - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Residents not Happy about Planned Hotel

Some homeowners in one of the fastest-growing cities in North Dakota are saying it may now be too much of a good thing.

That's after developers approached West Fargo City planners about putting in a hotel and convention center, right next to a middle school and an area housing subdivision.

The site is zoned for a hotel along the Ninth Street East corridor, but residents there say it puts school kids' safety and their own peace and quiet in jeopardy. They plan to attend a meeting with West Fargo city planners Monday night to voice their concerns.

There are quite a few folks unhappy about the plan for the convention center and hotel -- in one case, almost in one man's front yard. Gary Rockne retired to his tidy twin home across the street from the site after selling his old house in Fargo six years ago. He says looking up at a four-story hotel wall was not what he had in mind for his golden years.

He's also got objections to the extra light pollution the hotel may provide, the after-hours traffic, which he says the standard strip mall won't have, and the lack of a buffer zone between these homes and the business. Ironically, his house, and the other twin homes there, is considered part of the buffer zone for the space.

It's currently zoned for office parks, the parameters of which permits a hotel. The additional convenience and retail store envisioned by the developer falls outside that parameter and is what necessitates Monday's meeting on the land use plan amendment.

There's also been concern from some parents of kids who go to Cheney Middle school.

They say it could be a problem for kids' safety, in part because of the hotel bar that the development could have.

Other parents say they don't think it's a problem, and they think it's all part and parcel of the business corridor developing up and down 9th Street East.