Graham City Council denies fire code amendment request
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(FILE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) A screenshot from a video concept of the Middleton Hotel on the downtown square which was approved to move forward in December 2021 from the Graham Planning and Zoning Board and Graham City Council with a special use permit. The 16 rooms for the hotel will be stacked shipping containers within the empty lot on 509 Fourth St.
The Graham City Council, Thursday, Sept. 1, denied a request for an amendment to the fire code regarding a fire suppression system for the Middleton Hotel currently in development on the Graham downtown square.
During the Thursday, Aug. 18 council meeting, representatives of the Middleton Hotel requested an amendment to the automatic sprinkler system requirements in the fire code on Residential Group 1 and 2 properties where occupancy load is less than 10 and it is a single building which is less than two stories in height. Two council members voted to deny the request and three tabled the discussion to hear more information regarding a similar hotel in Fort Worth.
Matt Hughes, owner of the project, said Aug. 18 that when investigating the requirements for the project, he researched the fire code and what other municipalities have adopted. He specifically looked at Fort Worth because he stated they are the only city that has a similar project within city limits. Hughes stated a Fort Worth shipping container hotel, which was later found out to be Hotel Otto, is currently under the amendments he is requesting from the city of Graham.
Graham Fire Chief Jim Don Laurent said Aug. 18 that he spoke with the Fort Worth Fire Marshal who was unaware of the shipping container project. Assistant Chief David Aleshire said that after making contact with the marshal, they visited Hotel Otto to further investigate following the meeting in August.
“So we made contact with him and went down and looked at the hotel in Fort Worth he was speaking of, which is there off of the Trinity River,” Aleshire said. “(...) They had roughly nine units and they were sitting single stack, not double stacked, and there’s about five feet in between them and it was in a lot basically by themselves with nothing else around them (...) near the Trinity. Outside, (...) the hotel had like a front lobby deal and (...) a bar/eatery, but it was roughly probably 15 to 20 feet to the side and it was a cinder block-type building. But, they were all off the road with nothing else around them, which, you know, is vastly different than double stacking containers on the downtown square butted up against 100-plus year old buildings.”
For the full story, see the Wednesday, Sept. 7 edition of The Graham Leader.
