The Hilton Garden Inn in Aberdeen was recently granted a liquor license, but only after the Harford County Liquor Control Board addressed two letters of protest and the use of the banquet room in the hotel.

Licensees Nitin Patel and Lydia Hoory were granted a beer, wine and liquor license for onsite consumption only for the Hilton Garden Inn and its restaurant. The liquor board approved the license at its Jan. 27 meeting in Bel Air.

Patel operates three hotels in Harford County; however, this is his first liquor license request.

One concerned resident sent two letters of protest via e-mail to the liquor board regarding the license request.

In her letters, Karen Heavey, of the 600 block of West Bel Air Avenue, said she opposed the liquor license because of the close proximity of the hotel to other residential properties and a lack of adequate parking for the restaurant.

The Hilton Garden Inn, which has 96 rooms designed mainly for business clientele, opened in August.

Since the letters of protest were received, the parking issue at the hotel was rectified with the City of Aberdeen.

The liquor board also wanted to make sure the licensees were aware of the dangers of opening up the banquet or meeting room to a promoter.

Patel said he would like to open the banquet room up for birthday parties, weddings and other events, even though the room setup is better designed for business meetings.

Administrator Kathryn Thess said the liquor board has had issues where the people under contract for a particular venue do not use it for its requested purpose.

“That is where we are finding our problems coming in,” Donald Hess, chairman of the liquor board, said.

He said the request may be for a birthday party, but the event turns out to be for something completely different that is usually on a larger scale.

“We are not looking for that type of business,” Patel said, adding that he doesn’t plan to have any events past 11 p.m.

Hess said the licensees will have to be aware of to whom it is leasing the meeting or banquet room.

“If something doesn’t smell right, you better cut it off right from the beginning,” Hess said. “You have just got to be aware.”

Parking issues

When the plans for Hilton Garden Inn were before the city’s planning commission, there was no mention of including a restaurant inside the hotel.

“The restaurant was not brought into the picture during the planning commissioner process,” Phyllis Grover, director of planning and community development for Aberdeen, said Monday.

The restaurant and bar, which is an extension of the lobby and is primarily for use by hotel guests, seats 60 people.

When the planning commission approved the preliminary site plan for the hotel, which included 99 parking spaces, the commission was not aware of the proposed restaurant.

To have the adequate number of parking spaces for both the hotel and the restaurant, the licensees needed 25 more spaces for a total of 124.

The Code of Aberdeen requires one parking space of each room, plus two for the management staff for the hotel.

For the restaurant, the requirement is one parking space per three patron seats, plus one per employee at the largest shift.

The parking space issue was brought to the City of Aberdeen’s attention by Heavey’s letter of protest.

“As a resident of Aberdeen, I attended several planning commission meetings regarding this property,” Heavey wrote in an e-mail to Thess in August. “A preliminary site plan reviewed by the City’s Planning Commissioner on/about March 2005, was for a hotel only; it was my understanding at the time that there would be no other uses, such as dining room, banquet facilities.”

In addition, the letter also outlined her concerns about the hotel abutting two residential properties, and those residents were unaware alcohol would be served in close proximity to their homes.

Once the parking issue was brought to light, Grover said the licensees were asked to rectify the issue by getting a waiver for the 25 parking spaces from the city’s board of appeals.

The waiver was granted earlier this month.

“They [the licensees] are not in compliance with the city law for the hotel and restaurant,” Grover said at the liquor board meeting.

Although there are now adequate spaces, Heavey said in her second letter to the board on Jan. 26, she still opposed the liquor license.

“How this project was allowed to be built without the required approval process was not addressed,” Heavey wrote in an e-mail to the liquor board. “Thus, my concerns remain in regard to the lack of discussion and public input regarding the impact of a bar, lounge or restaurant with alcoholic beverages in such close proximity to residential neighborhoods.”

In other business, the liquor board approved outside service in front of the Laurrapin Grille in Havre de Grace on Feb. 16 for the Mardi Gras parade the city is hosting.

One-day beer and wine licenses approved by the board include the Havre de Grace Main Street Corporation Inc., for its gallery show reception on Feb. 2, the Maryland Conservatory of Music Inc., for a concert reception on Feb. 6, and the Harford Jewish Center for an in-house fund-raiser on Feb. 7.

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