Watsonville Planning Commission to consider permit for Holiday Inn Express

WATSONVILLE - Weary travelers and visitors passing through Watsonville may soon have another place to rest their heads, as a special use permit for the city's second Holiday Inn Express will go before the Planning Commission at its Tuesday meeting.

The proposal by applicant Prakash Patel calls for a 2,348-square-foot, five-story, 70-foot-tall hotel to be built on a vacant lot on Technology Drive across from Graniterock's headquarters. The hotel would have 95 rooms, 100 vehicle parking spaces and five parking spaces for bikes, according to a staff report by contract planner Richard Smeaton.

Since the project is located in an area with an industrial park zoning designation, hotels are permitted uses but they must go through a design review process, Smeaton wrote. The city's zoning code requires a minimum 25-foot front yard setback and a maximum building height of 35 feet, but Patel is requesting major variance to allow a 10-foot setback "due to the property's topographic constraints." He also has applied for a text amendment to the zoning code to allow for a 70-foot height.

The site at 375 Technology Drive, located near surrounding industrial businesses, is currently a vacant slope with mature trees and shrubbery, but it has seen several development proposals over the years. These projects have included a corporate accounting building in 2005 and two other hotel projects in 2009 and 2015, but none of these projects came to fruition.

However, Patel submitted a new application in January 2025 on behalf of the property owner Watsonville Airport Hotel LP. That same year, he also submitted his requests for new setback and building height requirements. A draft Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration was completed earlier this year.

Proposed amenities for the hotel include a lobby, fitness room, laundry area, indoor swimming pool, meeting spaces, breakfast area, lifestyle lounge and business center. Patel is also proposing to install a retaining wall and to make landscaping and other site improvements.

If approved, this would be the second Holiday Inn Express in Watsonville. The chain also has a location at the end of a cul-de-sac next to the Crossroads Shopping Center on Main Street.

In the report, staff found the project to be in compliance with city standards.

"Staff has reviewed and analyzed the project thoroughly, and based on a review of the General Plan's goals and policies, Staff has determined that the proposed project is in harmony with the overall intent of the City's General Plan goals and policies, including those pertaining to industrial land use, local employment, land use suitability, street and highway facilities, truck transportation, natural resources, air quality, water quality, soil conservation, and archaeological resources," Smeaton wrote.

Staff is recommending the commission adopt the Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration and approve the special use permit, design review permit and major variance request. However, the zoning code text amendment request will need to go through the City Council, so staff is merely recommending the commission make the recommendation to the council.

In other business, the commission will consider a major variance request for a new single-family residence on Brennan Street and a special use permit for a new, non-medical, professional services and residential care facility for New Life Community Services at 255 E. Lake Ave.

The commission will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chambers on the top floor of the Watsonville Civic Plaza, 275 Main St., Watsonville.

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 5:04 PM.