The Business Journals - Week of March 22

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TR US TE D J O U R NALI S M AT YO U R FI N G E RTI P S

MARCH 22, 2021 VOL. 57, No. 12

westfaironline.com

HIGH HOPES

New owners bring new brand, new ideas for Hotel Nyack BY PETER KATZ pkatz@westfairinc.com

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hile a slow and financially painful recovery from Covid-19 has been forecast for the hospitality industry, the new owner of what was The Time Nyack Hotel has rebranded it using a boutique concept from the Hyatt chain and anticipates a bright future. The American Hotel & Lodging Association reported that hotels were one of the first industries affected by the pandemic after travel ground to a virtual halt and it will be one of the last to recover. Its

recent report characterizes the impact of Covid-19 on the travel industry as being nine times that of the economic shock after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. It said following the low of 14.5% room occupancy in April of 2020, 2021 is expected to see occupancies rising to 52.5%. Business travel is not expected to return to 2019 levels until 2024, with group and meeting demand down by 85% from prepandemic levels through next month and increasing in May to the point that they’re only down by 75%. » HIGH HOPES

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RIGHT TO RULE

CT LAWMAKERS DEBATE WHO SHOULD CONTROL ZONING: STATE OR MUNICIPALITIES? BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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battle over how zoning should be handled in Connecticut is being viewed by one side as a means of correcting decades-long wrongs and on the other as an existential threat to municipalities’ home rule. Given some of the actions surrounding a state government hearing on the zoning bills, the situation apparently has the potential of being a long-lived controversy. On March 15, the state Planning and Development

Committee discussed a number of bills, including: • House Bill 6611, which would require municipalities to develop a plan to maintain a sufficient stock of affordable housing. • House Bill 6613, which would require municipal zoning commissions to adopt regulations allowing accessory apartments, middle housing and multifamily housing. • House Bill 6107, which would provide an administrative mechanism to promote compliance with municipal affordable housing plans and require the secretary of the Office of

Policy and Management to convene a working group to study municipal affordable housing plans and zoning regulations. • House Bill 1026, which would require elected municipal planning and zoning commission members to undergo at least two hours of training on affordable housing per year. The legislation receiving the most attention, however, is Senate Bill 1024, which essentially would require municipalities to build mixed-use developments with at least four apartments within a » RIGHT TO RULE

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