NATCHEZ — Hopeful developers of the historic Eola Hotel were denied approval of their plans for the first floor of the former Eola Hotel, but will appeal the decision to the Board of Aldermen.

Interim City Planner Riccardo Giani said the planning commission heard the developers’ presentation after he denied the application.

“When I received application, I looked at the plans. I compared them to requirements of the development code, and I didn’t see a match,” Giani said.

The historic downtown district zone requires public access to all first-floor businesses and must be pedestrian friendly, Giani said, which the submitted plans did not appear to satisfy.

However, he said after hearing the presentation at the planning commission meeting Thursday, his concerns have been assuaged.

“The commission and I saw the light of what they were trying to propose,” Giani said. “What was presented was different from what was shown on the plans.”

Local attorney Tony Heidelberg, who represents the Eola project, said the developers have altered their plans in response to the planning department’s concerns.

“So what we’re going to do is revise the first-floor planning, which encompasses 100 percent (of the first floor) for public access,” Heidelberg said.

The developers have 10 days to appeal the decision and be added to the Natchez Board of Aldermen agenda. Heidelberg said they would probably appear before the board in late March.

Heidelberg said the board seemed satisfied with the presentation, but denied it in order to speed along the process.

“This makes for a clean progression to keep this project moving,” Heidelberg said. “(The commission’s denial) keeps us from going back and forth to the planning commission. Now we just appeal the denial to the BOA and have another quasi-public meeting, which will be a lot shorter, evidencing how we modified the first-floor plan to comport with the wishes of the commission.”

If the board votes to deny the application, Heidelberg said the developers would start over from the beginning of the process.

Local property owner and Mayor of Madison Mary Hawkins Butler attended the meeting and said she spoke in objection to the proposed plans.

“The Eola is nationally known,” Butler said after the meeting. “It is a cornerstone for the heartbeat of the city of the Natchez.”

Butler said she has researched the cases of historic hotels in St. Francis, S.C. and Covington, La., which were refurbished and reopened as successful hotels.

“The hotel in Covington was proposed for senior living, and the residents (decided) that it would not be good for downtown,” Butler said. “I feel that it would be a big loss to Natchez to lose the Eola as a hotel.”

Butler said she was surprised to see the presentation differ from the written plans.

“They wanted a verbal plan approved and nothing in writing,” Butler said. “That is odd to me.”

Heidelberg said the written plans would be changed before they were presented to the board of aldermen, and Giani said he is tentatively optimistic that the project will benefit downtown.

“I won’t render an opinion on whether I think this is a good project (at this time),” Giani said. “But with that eloquent presentation, it clarified a lot of the concerns that I had.”