The Administration reviewed the definition of apartment hotel and drafted modifications to provide better clarity. Additionally, at the recommendation of the Independent Planning Reviewer for apartment hotels in the South of 5th Street area, as well as the recommendation of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the definition was amended to address the requirements for an inner lobby.

The attached draft ordinance contains the following revised definition of apartment hotel:

Apartment hotel means a building containing a combination of apartment units and hotel units and/or suite hotel units. For purposes of this definition, the following shall apply to an apartment hotel:

(1) At least one (1) of the units within a property shall consist of an apartment unit.
(2) All hotel and/or suite hotel units shall be under resident supervision. For purposes of this definition, the resident supervisor shall be required to live on the property and shall be available at all times to address any operational issues at the property.
(3) The property shall contain at least one guest lobby, which shall be a minimum of 250 square feet.
(4) For existing buildings constructed prior to 1965, including any additions, access to all hotel and/or suite hotel units may or may not be through a common lobby.
(5) For new construction and existing buildings constructed after 1965, including any additions, access to all hotel and/or suite hotel units shall be through a common lobby.

The substantive modifications to the definition of apartment hotel include the following:

1. The requirement for resident supervision has been better defined and clarified.

2. A minimum size of 250 square feet has been added for the required lobby.

3. The criteria for guest access to all units from a common lobby has been clarified. In this regard, access to all units from the lobby is required for buildings constructed after 1965, but not for existing buildings constructed prior to 1965. This will allow for the conversion of older buildings to an apartment hotel in districts that permit such use.

NOTE: In hotels, direct access to hotel units from an inner lobby is not required.

As it pertains to the minimum number of apartment units required within an apartment hotel, different options have been explored about potentially increasing the current requirement of a single apartment unit to a larger percentage of the total number of units. Given the changing nature of the unit mix in apartment hotels, particularly within larger buildings that fluctuate between residential apartment units and hotel units, it is recommended that the minimum number of apartment units remain at one (1). This allows for continued flexibility for both new and existing structures in those districts where an apartment hotel use is permitted. Again, it is important to note that apartment hotels are only permitted in those districts that allow for hotel uses.