Peachtree City planners reviewed plans for three different hotels proposed to be built in the city ... and they had different reactions to each at a workshop meeting Monday night.

A five-story Hilton Gardens Inn to be built at Commerce Drive North in the Westpark area just off Ga. Highway 74 was met with the most skepticism, in large part due to its sheer size.

Plans for a Fairfield Inn and Suites just to the north of that site and directly behind the Wisdom Pointe shopping center, were received somewhat more warmly than the Hilton schematic.

But the third hotel, a Comfort Inn and Suites that would be built behind the Zaxby’s and Newnan Community Bank on Lexington Circle received the most praise from the commission.

The schematic showed little if any corporate architecture connected with the Comfort Inn brand, and in keeping with the vision for Lexington Circle, the hotel will be directly off the sidewalk from the main road into and out of the development.

The area of the hotel along the sidewalk features multiple awnings as an architectural feature.

The three-story Comfort Inn will have 72 rooms and be just under 50,000 square feet in size. Also on the site is a location for a possible retail building of 3,300 square feet that will also have a courtyard area.

Commissioners suggested that windows in a few areas to break up blank areas on the exterior but other than that their response was in favor of the overall design.

Resident Lynda Wojcik noted that although Comfort Inn was the more budget-minded of the three hotels presenting at the meeting, its proposed design was far more aesthetically pleasing, and she wondered if Hilton and Fairfield Inn could put more effort into its designs.

Commissioners weren’t very kind to the Hilton proposal, which several commissioners noted was on a tract of land that’s already on high ground, which would make the five-story, 100-room complex stick out even further in the skyline. Suggestions for improvement included changes to the roof line and either using brick instead of stone or adding more of those elements to either side of the main hotel building.

The developer said that the five-story hotel is necessary because the indoor pool and convention room space take up the entire first floor.

Commissioner Patrick Staples said he felt the design looked too much like a prototypical Hilton Garden and Inn, and he hoped the design could be improved so when people see it after it’s built, they would consider it the best one they’d ever seen.

Architect Daniel Lemberg replied that he didn’t think Hilton corporate representatives would agree to many design changes unless they were required by a city ordinance.

The Fairfield Inn and Suites proposal was for a three-story 84-room hotel located just off Hwy. 74 behind the Wisdom Pointe shopping center. Because the building will be facing away from Hwy. 74, commissioners warned they would be critical about the design from the rear of the structure.

The commission also suggested that a better effort be made to provide a pedestrian access to the Wisdom Pointe shopping center, but developer Ishwar Dayabhai said the area behind Wisdom Pointe facing the hotel is “nasty.”

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