Pictured is the Cascade Motel in East Ridge on Wednesday.IF YOU GOEast Ridge Council meets today at City Hall, 1517 Tombras Ave. The agenda session starts at 5:15 p.m., and the regular council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.
As East Ridge officials prepare to ban extended-stay hotels, local hotel leaders say the new law won’t help old problems with such establishments and will only discourage new hotels from setting up in town.
East Ridge City Council will vote tonight on a second reading of an ordinance that narrowly defines hotels as “temporary sleeping accommodations” that can be rented out for only 30 days at a time. The ban is expected to pass.
The city has a litany of grievances against several of the nine extended-stay hotels now operating in East Ridge – including crime, building codes violations and health hazards – but the new ordinance wouldn’t actually affect any of them because they’ll be grandfathered in after the ban passes.
In curbing the expansion of extended-stay hotels, officials also hope to curb what they say are chronic safety problems.