A Marriott hotel in the early construction phases in East Ellijay is, at its current design, too tall to meet the city’s building height requirements.
The East Ellijay City Council and Mayor Mack West discussed that issue and heard input from the city’s engineer at a council meeting last Tuesday.
City engineer Stephen Swanberg said the hotel design is four stories with added parapet walls, which are vertical surfaces above the roofline.
“The issues are height limitations. Your own ordinance says zoning C2 (which this building would be located in) has a height limitation of 40 feet,” Swanberg said.
With the parapet walls, the total proposed height of the Marriott SpringHill Suites building is between 56 and 61 feet, he noted.
“The ceiling is up around 45-and-a-half feet. We’re already above the city’s height limitations (there),” Swanberg said. “It’s a large building ... but not as big as the adult congregate living facility that we have in East Ellijay, as far as occupancy goes. You look at some of the buildings in downtown Ellijay, and they’re probably pushing the same height or close to it.”
Another issue is what would happen if the fire department had to fight a fire in a building that high, Swanberg told West and councilmembers Don Callihan, Ed Forrester and Linda Smith.
Gilmer County Fire Marshal Mark Glover has sent the building site plans to the state fire marshal’s office for review, Swanberg noted. It’s not clear if that office will base their review on the city’s height ordinance or the county’s. East Ellijay is served by Gilmer Fire and Rescue, West noted.
Swanberg said, concerning other buildings that have gone up in East Ellijay, he’s previously been asked about the city’s ordinances, rather than the county’s.
West and Callihan said they think the state fire marshal will use the county’s height ordinance, although West noted the county ordinance is 42 feet from the ground up.
Grading has already started on the hotel site located on Cinema Drive. Next door, the future site of a Georgia Mountain Health medical clinic is also under early construction.
The council did not vote on anything related to the building height issue. Further discussion was tabled until a decision is made by the fire officials.
“The fire department is either going to approve it or not approve it. It sounds like they’re not going to approve it. We can’t grant a variance on something like that if the fire department’s not going to (approve it),” said Callihan.