Hotel creep. We got it bad.

The town’s infected now — an unintended consequence of leaders whose mantra is, “build, baby, build.”

So when they greenlit the hulking, curvy 102-room Clayfield Hotel at the Village with its wall of stacked vacay rentals, plus the four-storey Parliament Oak Hotel in the midst of Old Town (130 rooms plus restaurant), plus the on-again-off-again 81-room Hummel mansion (Van Riesen Hotel Group), what’d they expect?

We already have a raft of rooms available — from the Prince of Wales to the Queen’s Landing, Harbour House, Oban Inn, Shaw Club, Pillar and Post to Q124.

So the town has launched a race for business survival. Not only do we risk displacing people and houses with hotels and tourists, but life is a whole lot tougher — and more expensive — for the guys already in the hospitality biz.

“We are attempting to set our property to be able to fairly compete with these large approved hotels,” says David Jones, owner of the Q124 Hotel, “to attempt to garner interest from business group travel in the off-season. We are a small boutique hotel.”

Jones is fighting back with an expansion. It comes a few short years after the last swelling of his operation, which included underground parking, an addition in the style and scale of the main street, spa, restaurant, bar and open event spaces.

This brings us to 222 Gate St. And to a question. Is NOTL a bucolic, preserved historic site that people love to live in and visitors flock to for authenticity — or on its way to becoming a theme park with a historic vibe?

This proposed building may symbolize that, as well as being a flash point for anti-build sentiment. As you can see from the picture, Jones is planning a pseudo-Georgian mansion in the style of our grandest homes. Damn, it’s gorgeous. But it’s also fake.

The property (beside the grocery store, on a street with no businesses) has always been residential. Jones tried flogging it to someone willing to build a house, but no takers for a lot cheek-by-jowl with food delivery trucks and a platoon of garbage bins.

“We listed the property as a residential lot for 18 months at a competitive price, but there were no offers. This made us reassess the land use and meet with the town. They encouraged us to move forward and asked us to create all the reports necessary for site plan approval,” he says.

“Our plan for the property represents responsible use, creating a buffer between existing commercial and residential areas, with underground parking that has no access from Gate Street.”

Well, not so fast.

“This exemplifies the kind of sadness many of us have for the way events unfold in this lovely town,” says Donald Combe, who lives around the corner. “It appears that these townsfolk are simply ignored as they and their complaints are too trivial to deal with.”

Brodie Townley agrees. He says Jones failed to live up to past promises, and is beseeching the town to hit the hotel-creep pause button.

“This new hotel plan is further commercial creep into the residential Heritage District,” he tells the town.

“I don’t know why this is even being considered at this time as the town tries to expand the Heritage District. Those of us living in the district now are not allowed to apply for changes while the process goes on. Why is this being considered?

“The town says that third party groups may not appeal this application as per Bill 185, Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024. Why? This is not housing. It is a hotel. This in no way should apply.”

So, controversy. Ill will. Conflict. More development pressure.

On one hand, we should be happy to have an entrepreneur like Jones building quality. But we should also shield NOTL from turning into an over-hyped caricature of itself. Then everyone loses.