Developers of the Emerald Star Hotel, the new name of the soon-to-be-remodeled Ramada Inn Hilltop, got the go-ahead for demolition work from the Natchez Metropolitan Planning Commission Thursday.

But the commission stopped short of approving the Emerald Star’s site plans.

The city’s planning department recommended that the developers increase the number of handicapped parking spots and required an engineer to locate water lines and backflow preventers and show them on their drawings. They also suggested that the developers correct typos on the plans.

Commission members also had questions about the proposed thickness of the parking lot asphalt. Although the base of the parking lot would be 10 inches thick, the plans suggested the asphalt would only be two inches thick.

“Two inches doesn’t sound like enough to me,” President Deborah Martin said. “It doesn’t sound like it would last very long. It needs to be six inches or it’s going to look like Tracetown (shopping center) in no time.”

Board member Howard French agreed.

“You’d think with those big (tour) buses up there, they’d want more than that,” French said.

City Planner Dennis Story agreed that two inches was not thick enough.

Commission members had questions about other topics, too, but no one from Emerald Star was present at the meeting to answer questions.

So, the board voted to table the site plan approval until they had answers. They did approve the demolition of several structures of the hotel, part of the planned renovations, hotel representatives have said in the past.

Representatives for Emerald Star have recently said they expected to start work on the hotel by the first few weeks of April.

Investors from two Wisconsin groups and Natchez-based Emerald star Casino and Resorts, Inc., have joined together to work on the project. The facility will encompass The Briars bed and breakfast, the hotel and a riverboat casino, representatives have said.