The proposed Westin Hotel and Conference Center, a HarborCorp LLC project, moved one step closer to reality Wednesday, July 26, when the Portsmouth City Council approved the second of three readings of zoning amendments required for the project. If passed at a third reading, the amendments will be adopted.

They would change the lot, located behind the Sheraton Harborside hotel, from Central Business A to Central Business B; allow a height of 60 feet rather than the currently enforced 50-foot limit; allow city ownership of a privately built parking garage; and allow for a capacity of more than 500 people.

The Council is expected to pass the third reading at their meeting on Monday, Aug. 7.

“It’s very likely that (the zoning amendments) will pass the third reading and be enacted,” says councilor Ned Raynolds. He cited the majority approval of the amendments as an indication that they would be approved without difficulty. The Council differed on only one amendment. Councilors Chris Dwyer and Tom Ferrini voted against changes that would allow for a conference center with a capacity of more than 500 people. They had concerns that this amendment would create an unnecessary precedent that could alter the area’s character with future building projects.

“That amendment doesn’t simply change what would happen on that parcel of land; it changes the ability for anything in that new zoning area to be able to build an assembly place for 500 or more people,” says Dwyer, who is also a member of the Planning Board. She says this zoning change could pave the way for more conference centers, large nightclubs, or movie theaters. “We’re concerned about how much large space we would start adding to the downtown,” she says.

The amendment allowing a capacity of 500 people in a conference facility would apply to the entire Central Business B zone.

Dwyer feels that, instead of changing the zoning ordinances, it would be better for individual building projects to appeal to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

“It shouldn’t be a matter of right; it should be a matter of permission,” she says.

Dwyer will continue to talk with her fellow councilors until the third reading and will restate her concerns at the Aug. 7 meeting.

Councilors have indicated that they feel the new hotel and conference center will provide many benefits with few difficulties.

“This is something that’s been on the city’s agenda since at least 1999,” says Raynolds. He says the hotel and conference center will provide more tax revenue from the parcel, create more jobs in town, and increase spending in downtown shops. He says the project will not require any serious adjustments to the city’s infrastructure. The water and sewage system is capable of handling the extra usage, and no new fire or police personnel should be required.

“We have a busy downtown now, and it may become a little more busy,” he says.

If the zoning amendments pass a third City Council reading, then the hotel project must gain approval from the Historic District Commission and then return to the Planning Board for site approval.

Foster’s Daily Democrat reported last week on a proposal for a new hotel to be built on the site of the scrap metal pile at the Port of New Hampshire on Market Street, which is in the same neighborhood. Ocean Properties, which owns the Courtyard Hotel in Portsmouth as well as Wentworth by the Sea, came to the Pease Development Authority in October 2005 with a proposal for a hotel and parking garage where International Salt and Grimmel Industries currently piles its scrap metal. Officials with the PDA said that a hotel did not fit into the overall plan to create a working port in Portsmouth. No progress has since been made on that project.