East End Town Councilor Angeline Kounelis has come out against the proposed hotel on Elm Street that recently came forward.
Elm Hospitality LLC submitted preliminary plans for a five-story hotel with more than 100 rooms to the Watertown Planning Department. The hotel would be at 80 Elm Street, right behind Target in the Watertown Mall, and would replace the former Atlantic Battery Co. facility.
Kounelis said she does not believe the site is appropriate for such a project.
“I will state from the start, I will not support the hotel proposal,” Kounelis said. “Elm St. is a narrow neighborhood street that is already overwhelmed with traffic. There is no way Elm St. can accommodate vehicular traffic that a hotel would generate. Especially, when the only means of ingress/egress for the site is on Elm St.”
Kounelis said she has already heard from residents of the area who are “all emphatically against the proposal.”
The public will get a chance to hear about the proposal during a community meeting planned on Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Apartments at Coolidge School, 319 Arlington St. in Watertown.