Please Help Us Petition to Say "NO" to a New Hotel at 621 Elysian Fields Avenue (former site of American Aquatic Gardens)
The Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance of New Orleans states, in Section 4.3.A that the purpose of the Conditional Use process is to consider “certain uses that, because of their certain characteristics, cannot be properly classified in certain districts without consideration, in each case, of the impact of those uses upon neighboring land and if the public need for the particular use at the public location.”
The applicants are requesting a 40% height waiver (from a maximum of 50 feet to 70 feet) and almost a 50% increase in the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from 2.1 to 3.1. This would make the new hotel the largest building in the Marigny at 93,000 sq. ft., and the tallest building on the entirety of Elysian Fields Avenue, from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain.
We, the signers of this petition, believe that too much of our housing stock is being converted into lodging (STRs, B&Bs, and Hotels/Motels), thus depriving our historic neighborhood of residents. This location in particular is within a block of the new Hampton Inn (501 Elysian Fields), and newly approved hotels at the former Dr. Nut bottling plant (2121 Chartres) and a boutique hotel at the Michalopoulos’ Studio (527 Elysian Fields). Additionally, other properties are being converted from neighborhood-serving businesses into hotels for tourists. Therefore, we OPPOSE granting a Conditional Use for a hotel at 621 Elysian Fields, the former site of American Aquatic Gardens, a neighborhood-serving business, and urge the City Planning Commission and City Council to DENY this Conditional Use for a hotel.
