Borough council delivered the same verdict Tuesday that the borough planning commission delivered last week, rejecting plans to build town houses on the site of a historic hotel.

“We appreciated the opportunity for a hearing, and we’ll study what to do next,” said property owner Greg Flynn after the vote.

Since early 2014 borough officials have discussed and debated the building at Fifth and Walnut streets, which was built in the 1890s as the Colonial Inn, then operated for much of the 20th century as the North Wales Hotel, and most recently as McKeever’s Tavern, which closed in 2014, writes Dan Sokil for thereporteronline.com

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Developer Greg Flynn has been working since 2014 to develop designs for new projects on the site, which would see the hotel building demolished and replaced with 10 town houses, two rows of five each fronting Fifth and Sixth streets. Flynn, attorney Rob Lewis and engineer Marty Eustace made their case to council Tuesday night, outlining the list of waivers they wanted council to grant to allow the project to proceed.

Several residents spoke out on both sides of the debate, with a handful calling for some sort of preservation of the historic property, while others said they felt any new development would be better than an empty, and rapidly deteriorating, building.

North Wales Borough Council next meets at 7 p.m. on Dec. 26 at the borough municipal building, 300 School St. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org

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