By Zachery Schmidt
An Arizona man is one step closer to building his hotel in downtown Prescott after years of being denied city permits for what’s being called vague reasons.
Jim Griset, who owns buildings in the Arizona city of about 46,000 people, has been trying to build his boutique hotel on his property. But the city has been denying him the right to do so.
Since 2023, Griset has attempted to turn the three buildings he owns – a Harley Davidson shop, an art gallery and a souvenir store – into a hotel.
Goldwater Institute attorney Jon Riches, who represents Griset, told The Center Square that Griset needed to obtain a permit from the Prescott Historical Preservation Commission before he could build a hotel.
The commission kept denying Griset’s permit without any “clear objective criteria or guidelines,” Riches said. Instead, the attorney said, the permit was denied on “subjective determinations.”
After Griset got his first permit application denied by the commission, he appealed it to the Prescott City Council, but it upheld the commission’s ruling, said the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative litigation and public policy research organization.
The permit denial from the city council was “vague and subjective,” Riches noted.
And as Griset redesigned his hotel to meet the standards sought by Prescott, those standards kept changing, according to the Goldwater Institute.
Griset told The Center Square that it was “very disheartening” when the city repeatedly denied his permit applications.
He added that this ordeal has been “going on for years,” saying he has spent a “considerable amount” of money on the project.
One of the key reasons the city kept denying the permits for Griset’s hotel was due to the influence of people who believe in the “Not In My Backyard” philosophy. They’re known as NIMBYs, people who oppose certain types of changes in their neighborhood.
In Griset’s case, the NIMBYs were “particularly egregious” during the city council and commission hearing, Riches said.
Numerous people testified at the hearings that they “didn’t want the hotel there,” and “they didn’t want the building to change,” Riches noted.
Riches called the pushback against Griset’s hotel a “troubling display” of people not wanting anything to change, regardless of what Arizona law says or Griset’s private property rights.
The people who showed up in opposition to his hotel project “only represented” a small portion of the city’s population, Griset said.
The attorney added that he thinks the commission didn’t like the project and did not want it where Griset’s property is located.
To put this into perspective, while Griset was seeking approval for his hotel design, the city approved another hotel for construction in the same area, Riches said.
Earlier this month, after two years of battling Prescott on his hotel project, the city council overturned the commission’s decision and approved Griset’s hotel project.
Griset told The Center Square that it was a “huge hurdle” for the city to overturn the commission’s denial of his hotel project.
One of the main arguments Riches used in helping Griset get his hotel design approved was the state’s Permitted Freedom Act.
Riches said this law says that if a government “is going to act on a permit,” it must be “based on clear and objective criteria.” Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the act into law in 2023.
The Permitted Freedom Act changed the legal landscape for property owners “pretty substantially,” according to the attorney.
After the city council overturned the commission’s decision, Riches said, “It was gratifying to see the Prescott City Council finally respect Jim’s property rights and respect Arizona law that says you can’t base these denials on these sorts of vague, unsubstantiated claims.”
“The government has to have real objective standards that are measurable,” he noted.
The people who showed up in opposition to his hotel project “only represented” a small portion of the city’s population, Griset said.
The attorney added that he thinks the commission didn’t like the project and did not want it where Griset’s property is located.
To put this into perspective, while Griset was seeking approval for his hotel design, the city approved another hotel for construction in the same area, Riches said.
Earlier this month, after two years of battling Prescott on his hotel project, the city council overturned the commission’s decision and approved Griset’s hotel project.
Griset told The Center Square that it was a “huge hurdle” for the city to overturn the commission’s denial of his hotel project.
One of the main arguments Riches used in helping Griset get his hotel design approved was the state’s Permitted Freedom Act.
Riches said this law says that if a government “is going to act on a permit,” it must be “based on clear and objective criteria.” Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the act into law in 2023.
The Permitted Freedom Act changed the legal landscape for property owners “pretty substantially,” according to the attorney.
After the city council overturned the commission’s decision, Riches said, “It was gratifying to see the Prescott City Council finally respect Jim’s property rights and respect Arizona law that says you can’t base these denials on these sorts of vague, unsubstantiated claims.”
“The government has to have real objective standards that are measurable,” he noted.
Griset has “both a moral and legal right to use his property in any lawful way,” the attorney said.
Riches said he thinks Griset’s case is a “good lesson for city governments across Arizona.” He added that if cities “arbitrarily” impair private property rights, then “they’re gonna be held accountable under Arizona law.”
Griset is almost done getting his hotel approved for the build. He told The Center Square that he has to get a use permit approved by the city’s zoning and planning commission and then by the city council.
He said he was unsure about how the city council would rule on his use permit because it will be adding four new members.
On top of this, Griset added that he will need the hotel’s water service agreement approved by the city as well.
Having family in Prescott, I have been visiting regularly for over 25 years. I think Whiskey Row and the Courthouse Square have already started losing their old west feel. Adding a hotel to Whiskey Row will, I feel, be the nail in the coffin, so to speak. And where will people staying in this hotel park. There are already very obvious parking issues in that area. I am often loathe to bring guests and family downtown because of the lack of parking already.
is Griset a local or another guy from ‘out of state’ that wants to change things…..Prescott shouldnt lose its old west town feel…….
Funny…..that he wants to build a 4 story building where the code only allows 3 stories is never mentioned. Who was bought off to ignore the code?
If he wants to put his hotel in and around courthouse square, it will ruin the historic value of downtown Prescott and destroy the tourism industry there.
Yeah right because all the other shops stores etc are historic. Get real times change and business move out. Should be glad someone wants to invest in the area rather people like you wish to see empty and derelict buildings
So, building a hotel will ‘ruin the historic value’ of downtown Prescott? But the buildings in the area will still be ‘historic’. And when those historic buildings were built, didn’t they do the same thing to the ‘historic value’ at the time?
And the new hotel will ‘destroy the tourism industry’? Wouldn’t it actually increase tend to increase that tourism? Isn’t that why the developer wants to convert the buildings into a hotel? To provide a place for tourists to stay?