Despite protests, board backs planned $20M Lake Norman “English countryside” inn
In a split vote, the Cornelius Planning Board backed Lake Norman developer Jake Palillo’s planned $20 million “English countryside” inn at Sam Furr and Mayes roads in a fast-growing area east of Interstate 77 Monday night.
Cornelius Inn would include a 40-room hotel, seven rental cottages and a 4,500-square-foot spa and clubhouse on 6.28 acres. Architect sketches from the developer call the hotel Sam Furr Road Inn, but the proposal would be called Cornelius Inn, town officials said.
“We feel there’s a really strong need for it,” Pallilo said before the board voted 5-3 to recommend a rezoning for the project to the Cornelius Board of Commissioners, which has final say. The town board is scheduled to vote on the project at an upcoming meeting to be announced.
Planning Board members who voted against the hotel said it’s out of character with the town’s zoning plan for the area. Those who supported the hotel cited the quality of the project and noted that only one Cornelius resident spoke against the proposal Monday night.
“There’s no really quality hotels available in the area,” Palillo said. “You got a lot of roadside hotels, but this more of a higher end, boutique-type hotel.”
Hotels in the area are “dated, 15 to 20 years old,” he said. “You’re taking showers in bathtubs with shower curtains. And they’re all foreign-owned. And no one’s redoing and upgrading them.”
The exterior will resemble a European country inn, Palillo, a Cornelius resident, said. The interior will have a Ralph Lauren-type look, “very high end, very classy,” he said.
Rooms would be larger than those in roadside hotels and would cost around $300 a night, Palillo said. He said his family will run the hotel, not a hotel chain.
The hotel would be of “Cotswold architecture,” designed like “old English cottages,” Cornelius Senior Planner Aaron Tucker told the board. The exterior would include light-colored brick with stone accents, he said.
Petition against the project
Eight residents in nearby Davidson and Huntersville cited traffic and safety concerns in speaking against the project at a public hearing before the board’s vote. Nearly 900 people signed a petition against the rezoning in recent months.
“It would just add further congestion,” a neighbor said at Monday’s public hearing.
“Safety will be a thing of the past,” said a woman who moved to area with her husband from Orange County, California, for the “quieter” setting. “This no longer considers the people who live in this community.”
No longer rural, developer says
One resident, Matt Walker of Cornelius, spoke in favor of the two-story, 45,000-square-foot hotel. “I think this is a very good element for this community,” he said. “I believe this to be a mixed-use signature item.”
Palillo said Sam Furr Road (N.C. 73) is no longer a rural road. He cited several large subdivisions near his project, including ones that have been approved and are on the way.
A 30,000-square-foot, 12-restaurant food hall is planned at Oak Branch and Sam Furr roads and a shopping center at Maple Branch and Sam Furr, he added.
The state plans to widen the highway.
“This whole corridor is growing, and it’s growing all the way towards Concord, towards Kannapolis,” Palillo said.