Downtown Spartanburg's planned six-story Cambria Hotel examined by City Design Review Board

A new six-story hotel planned for the southest corner of N Church and E St John streets got its first overview from the City's Design Review Board (DRB) on Tuesday. The proposed 119 room hotel includes a ground-floor restaurant and bar with outdoor seating, an outdoor pool, and a two-level parking deck. The board, citing the developer's plans to use nonconforming EFIS (exterior insulation and finish system) to clad the exterior of the hotel's upper floors, sent the project back to the developer for revision before preliminary approval will be granted. So what does that mean? What is EFIS and why would the DRB care about its use on a downtown building? Why regulate the form and materials used in downtown construction projects at all? Today on the podcast, we're talking with City Manager Chris Story about the new hotel project, the importance of the DRB process, and the other big downtown projects that were reviewed by the board at its last meeting. Listen below for more.