LEE — Owners of The Pilgrim Inn in Lee are proposing to demolish the current hotel and build a four-story Marriott Fairfield, which would require a special permit.

The planned hotel would be 50 feet tall, have 75 rooms and would employ five people. The proposal came before the Lee Planning Board on Monday, during a meeting that was continued to July 13.

"The special-permit granting authorities will have a public hearing that residents can address concerns, and we're very sensitive to that," said Chris Brittain, the town administrator. "From an economic standpoint in the town, you know, we've seen neighboring towns really benefit from larger high-end chain hotels."

A proposed four-story, 50-foot tall hotel is coming before the Lee Planning Board to acquire a special permit. If approved, The Pilgrim Inn at 165 Housatonic St. will be demolished to make space for the new development.

The Pilgrim Inn was previously owned by Gangama Inc., led by Urmilaben and Bhupendra Patel. They sold the property to Muhammad and Ibrahim Zia's Garden Management Inc. in 2020 for $655,000.

Garden Management and its legal counsel did not respond to multiple attempts to contact them.

A proposed four-story, 50-foot tall hotel is coming before the Lee Planning Board to acquire a special permit. If approved, The Pilgrim Inn at 165 Housatonic St. will be demolished to make space for the new development.

Currently, the inn at 165 Housatonic St. is two stories tall and has 24 rooms. It benefits from Lee's proximity to I-90, sitting a quarter-mile from the interstate. However, the lot also spans two zoning districts, with the front half in the Commercial Business Corridor and the back half being in an R-20 Residential zone.

"That makes this parcel a little more complicated than other parcels," said town planner Brooke Healey.

A proposed four-story, 50-foot tall hotel is coming before the Lee Planning Board to acquire a special permit. If approved, The Pilgrim Inn at 165 Housatonic St. will be demolished to make space for the new development.

According to the special permit application, the proposed hotel would sit in the commercially zoned area. But to make that possible, the town's commercial zoning district would need to be extended, which requires approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The planned hotel would come more in line with the zoning bylaws by minimizing the building's footprint and expanding frontage and sideage. It would be 11,577 square feet, and would include an outdoor pool and patio.

But the hotel's height will make it noticeably taller than the surrounding buildings.

"There are residences nearby as well, but there's definitely a fair number of chains," Brittain said.

The commercial zoning district allows buildings up to 35 feet tall through the normal permitting process. That limit can be increased to 50 feet if the permit is approved by the Planning Board.

Another issue is the limit on the number of stories a building can have. Lee only allows two-and-a-half stories in the commercial zone, but the proposed hotel would be four stories.

The developer also needs to get clearance from the Conservation Commission because the lot abuts Barnes Brook.

Garden Management will also have to expand the parking lot to accommodate the additional rooms and employees. The planned lot would have 80 spaces, four of which would be accessible parking spaces.

The parking lot would occupy the residential zone of the property.

The Conservation Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals will meet to discuss the planned hotel on July 1 and 8, respectively.

"As I like to say to people, to keep the tax rate low, there's only two ways we can do that," Brittain said. "We can bring in new growth and new revenue with things like this, or we have to cut services. Things don't get any cheaper."