By Graham Sweeney
Initial plans for a four-story hotel will be discussed Thursday night at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Collierville Planning Commission.
Commissioners will vote to approve a preliminary site plan for The Fairfield Inn and Suites, a 55,789-square-foot Marriott hotel planned for construction on the north side of Collierville Road, east of Houston Levee Road.
The developers also own the nearby Courtyard Marriott.
The 110-room hotel will be north of Carriage Crossing and feature an exterior swimming pool to the west.
Assistant Town Planner Nancy Boatwright said the hotel would not drive improvements to Collierville Road.
Wesley Wooldridge, a civil engineer with Renaissance Group, said Collierville Road has “very light traffic and will easily handle the traffic generated by a 110-guest room hotel and not have a detrimental impact on any traffic flow in the area.”
Boatwright said the town’s Design Review Commission will have to determine if the 12 proposed LED bar lights planned to be mounted vertically from the second floor near the entrance will be shielded adequately.
“Too much building lighting could be used as a form of signage,” she said. “The applicant is asking for more signage, and in more locations, than the (town’s) sign regulations allow.”
Wooldridge said the signage is necessary to attract travelers from Highway 385.
“It is very important to traffic that is traveling down 385 to be encouraged to stop and stay in Collierville,” he said. “And with this in mind the signage is very important.”
If approved by the Planning and Design Review commissions, the project will go before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Feb. 27.
In related news:
• Commissioners are also expected to vote on the final subdivision plat for 37 residential lots on 21.47 acres on Fleming Road, south of East Shelby Drive, in the Magnolia Preserve subdivision.
None of the lots will have access to Fleming Road or Shelby Drive and will have 20- to- 25-foot buffers from the roadways with fencing.
This is the first phase of the Magnolia Preserve project.
