With the chairwoman saying it looked like a Hampton Inn, the Planning Board told the owners of Ballard’s Inn Wednesday to scale down their proposal to replace the popular tourist restaurant and inn on Water Street.

The owners are proposing to replace the current one-story structure with a four-story mixed-use building featuring dining areas, a 40-room hotel, four year-round apartments and a 296-person capacity, open-air banquet facility on the fourth floor. At 46 feet high, the proposed structure would feature balconies, two cupolas and a tan-shingled siding. The 27,615-square-foot footprint of the building, however, would remain unchanged.

“I’m very concerned that this does not look like Block Island,” Planning Board Chairwoman Margaret Comings said. “People around here are referring to it as the Block Island Hampton Inn.” She later added that the proposed structure would “stick out like a sour thumb.”

And fellow member Rob Gilpin called the plan “pretty intense” and said he worried its approval could set a precedent of allowing similar projects throughout Old Harbor.

Members told the assembled design team to add more Victorian elements to the building and Kevin Hoyt suggested they look to the Ocean View Hotel, which burned down in 1966, as a model.

Ballard’s lawyer John Mancini took pains to explain to the board that the owners, the Filippi family, were willing to work with the town and understood the historical and aesthetic importance of the structure visible to visitors arriving on the ferries from Point Judith and New London.

“Given this will be a gateway to Block Island we are prepared to go through an extensive design review,” he said.

He also pointed out that the original two-story Ballard’s that burnt down in 1986 contained 44 guest rooms, though they were much smaller than the 419-square-foot rooms proposed in the new structure.

Besides aesthetics, board members expressed concerns about parking and the town’s ability to handle the building’s proposed 740-person capacity, up from its present 500.

Hoyt expressed particular concern about that amount of people coming to the town during the shoulder seasons when the town operates with a reduced police force and other services.

Mancini said the company plans to commission a fiscal impact statement showing the affects on the town, including costs associated with providing increased police, fire and rescue protection. As for parking, Mancini said the building would cater mostly to visitors without vehicles and the owners were seeking to find parking on nearby lots, at least one of which they own.

Mancini proposed that the Planning Board, Historic District Commission and Town Council hold a joint public workshop to review the plans and provide feedback. The board concurred and will work to schedule a date sometime in February.

The project will also require approvals from the Zoning Board, state Coastal Resources Management Council and potentially the state Department of Environmental Management.

The Filippis are also seeking to condense the approval process by applying directly to the Town Council for a Planned Development Zone that would allow them to secure all of the variances they need in one-shot. The family also plans to ask the town to modify its Comprehensive Plan to ensure the building fits in the long-term plan for the town.

Horse stables

After almost five months of discussion, the Planning Board recommended 4-2 that the Town Council adopt new zoning regulations governing livestock and eliminating the need for non-commercial stables to acquire a Special Use Permit.

The commercial raising of livestock would be allowed only in the Residential A and B zones and the RC/M Zone under the proposed regulations. Commercial stables would be allowed only in the RA and RB zones.

In addition the keeping of “large animal livestock” such as horses, cows and mules, would be permitted everywhere except the Old Harbor Commercial Zone provided the owner meets minimal land area requirements.

Large animals would not be allowed on parcels smaller than 20,000 square feet (about a half-acre). The proposed regulations would allow one large animal on lots between 20,000 square feet and 80,000 square feet and two animals on lots greater than 80,000 square feet.

Animal owners looking to put additional animals on the property or failing to meet the land area requirements would need a Special Use Permit. All large animal owners would be limited to keeping an eight-yard stockpile of manure and keeping it at least 50 feet away from the property line. The proposal also carves out an exception for animals that are grazing temporarily on a piece of land.

Denny Heinz and Gilpin opposed the recommendation with Heinz saying after the meeting he thought the proposal should have also banned large animals in the Commercial Services Zone.

New trades trailers limits

With Gilpin and Hoyt recusing themselves, the board suggested the Town Council approve regulations governing the size of trades trailers on the island. Though technically forbidden under current regulations, contractors and caterers routinely use trailers at job sites.

The Planning Board suggested the town limit enclosed trailers to 8 feet by 24 feet, require the owner to put the business name or license number on the outside, forbid trailers with interior plumbing and require that the trailers have wheels and are registered commercial vehicles. Trailers could be parked on the job site during construction or the catering event or otherwise parked at the owner’s residence. But the ordinance calls it an accessory use, meaning a trailer owner must park it on a lot with a house he or she owns while not on the job site. First Warden Kim Gaffett said it seemed unfair to tell a landowner that he could not park his legally registered trailer on a vacant property he paid taxes on.

“What’s next? Does this mean you can’t put a goat on it?” Gaffett asked.

Board members responded that they were just trying to regulate what was already occurring.

Power generator ban

The board tabled a discussion on whether to ban fossil fuel prime power generators after encountering technical questions about the definition of “prime.” The board is looking for a way to ban large diesel generators that provide a building’s principal source of power. Members have said they are unsightly, a potential fire hazard and take customers off the power grid, thereby driving up rates for the remaining users.

Other business

• The board granted initial approval for David and Lucinda Morrison to subdivide the 169,000-square-foot lot containing the Old Town Inn and a cottage (Plat 17, Lot 27). David told the board the couple wished to separate the cottage and the inn because they planned to move off-island for five years and they were considering selling the cottage. David said the two hoped to return in the summer to run the inn. The Zoning Board must approve the plan before sending it back to the Planning Board for another round of approvals.

• The board asked Sam Bird to return with a plan to provide room for trucks to turn around before approving subdividing the vacant 12-acre lot he owns with his nieces off West Side Road (Plat 18, Lot 4-1). Bird had thought he solved the issue by using part of a neighbor’s driveway to form a “T” so trucks could turn around. But board solicitor Don Packer told Bird that he would need to obtain an easement from his neighbor in order for that solution to work.

• The board granted a favorable advisory opinion to Frances and Gordon Smith to build 1,200-square-foot, one-bedroom house off Corn Neck Road (Plat 2, Lot 10).

• The board asked architect Doug Gilpin (no relation to Rob Gilpin) to fine tune plans for the modification of a second floor bedroom to a house on Champlin Road (Plat 19, Lot 56). The board also wanted more information on a shed proposed by owners Glenn and Karen Sweet.

• Saying the property was one lot and not two, the board told attorney Elliot Taubman to re-file his application to subdivide Donald Schmidt’s property off Payne Road. Taubman maintained the property was two lots and qualified for an administrative subdivision, essentially a simple lot line change. However, the building official ruled it was one lot and Schmidt would need to file for a minor or major subdivision, a more costly and time-consuming process. Taubman agreed to re-file.