When Kevin King imagines what it could be like having a four-story hotel as his neighbor, he thinks about the loss of privacy he fears he and his wife would feel inside their home.
“It’s just ridiculously close and intrusive in my mind,” he said during a Doylestown Borough zoning hearing for a proposed boutique hotel at the former site of borough hall and the Central Bucks Regional police station — a property which was purchased in 2021 for $2.3 million by borough resident and developer Larry Thomson.
Plans submitted by ALOK Investments, LLC, outline a hotel that includes 32 guest rooms, a restaurant and an event space inside a 41,385-square-foot, four-story building with a parking garage on its lower level.
The proposal came before the zoning hearing board for a third time Feb. 15, where dozens of residents spoke, some in support of a new hotel and many others with mixed feelings about the size and scope of the overall project.
King was among several residents living on Hamilton Street and Harvey Avenue who worried the proposed building’s planned rooftop deck and third- and fourth-floor balconies would provide hotel guests with a bird’s eye view into their backyards and windows.