Franklin Residents Voice Opposition to Proposed Riverview Hotel

Dozens of Franklin residents are voicing their opposition to a proposal to turn the historic Riverview mansion into a hotel.

The proposal would see the 15-acre property — which sits directly across from Battle Ground Academy's Lower School on Franklin Road in the city’s historic district — turn from a private residence to a luxury hotel that could include a day spa, restaurant and event hall in the property’s barn.

“The property's location, sitting right in between downtown Franklin, Harlinsdale Farm, the Factory at Franklin really connects a lot of the future hospitality use of the city, but more importantly, we view this as not only a new hospitality project in downtown Franklin, but one that can be used by all the community. We want the residents coming here weekly,” Capital P Ventures principal Patrick Poole told the Williamson Scene. “We want this to be a community landmark hotel, and we're really excited about where we are.”

But so far, the project has not been received positively by many residents living next to and near the mansion, including around 50 concerned citizens who attended an April 15 neighborhood meeting at BGA.

Joyce Rogers, a 25-year resident, said that she doesn’t know any of her neighbors who are in favor of the proposed project, and said she doesn’t believe that the developers and designers will keep their word on the project.

“Everybody says no,” Rogers said. “We have no faith in anything they say.”

Numerous residents told the Williamson Scene that they are concerned with potential traffic impacts, noise and light pollution, and other negative quality of life impacts

“I'm here to protest,” resident Doug DeCinces said. “I've been here just five months. I bought my house because of the setting. I bought it knowing that that was zoned residential, and now they want to change residential to a 24/7 commercial property with deliveries and 120 beds. This is absolutely absurd.”

The developer and designers pitched the project as a way to preserve a historic site while relying on height restrictions to be no taller than the home or barn and the use of “heavy landscaping” to “screen the property.” Some residents said they don’t oppose the idea of a luxury hotel bringing new life to a historic site, with most concerns centered around the location and the idea of an event venue.

“We see an opportunity here that this could be a part of kind of the jewels along Franklin Road,” Greg Gamble, founder of and landscape architect at Gamble Design Collaborative, said during a March 26 presentation at a joint meeting of the Board of Mayor and Alderman and Franklin Municipal Planning Commission Joint Conceptual Workshop.

Several Aldermen voiced some concerns about the proposal including Ward 2 Alderman Matt Brown. The mansion resides in his ward. 

“A real concern that I would have, as well as all of them [neighbors to the proposed development] have in terms of an event venue, literally backed up right next to neighborhood houses,” Brown said with Ward 4 Alderman Patrick Baggett adding, “I love the idea, and I wish that there was a place that we could do this where it would be more appropriate.”

Capital P Ventures will host another neighborhood meeting at a yet to be announced date, and the project would need to be approved by the planning commission in order to proceed.

“We're still in the very early phases of design, but we've, we've taken our time and worked with our design team very thoughtfully on how to program the site, and, more importantly, how to scale it, to be consistent, respectful with the community that surrounds it,” Poole told the Williamson Scene. 

“It is too early to tell what the timeline looks like from a development perspective,” Poole continued, “but we believe we are going to continue to get out into the community, hearing them and continue to gain traction on what this project wants to be.”