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The Equinox Golf Resort and Spa has paid $4,800 in fines to resolve a complaint that it used a Dillingham Avenue residence as employee housing this past summer; it will also lose about $100,000 and an estimated $152,000 next year in guest revenue to house the workers elsewhere.

The Equinox Golf Resort and Spa has paid $4,800 in fines to resolve a complaint that it used a Dillingham Avenue residence as employee housing this past summer; it will also lose about $100,000 and an estimated $152,000 next year in guest revenue to house the workers elsewhere.

MANCHESTER — The Equinox Golf Resort and Spa has paid $4,800 in fines to resolve a complaint that it used a Dillingham Avenue residence as employee housing this past summer, in violation of Manchester Village’s zoning ordinance.

The Village Board of Trustees voted 3-0 to assess the fine on Monday. It was paid Tuesday, formally closing the matter, Zoning Administrator Curan VanDerWielen said. The fine assessed was $100 per day, for a total of 48 days.

At Monday’s meeting, Equinox general manager Jay Sheldon said the resort has since been using its 1811 House, at 3654 Main St., to house employees. He also said the resort has maintained a residence for five workers at 27 Dillingham Ave., bringing it within zoning compliance.

The resulting loss of guest revenue at the 1811 House will cost the hotel about $100,000 and an estimated $152,000 next year, Sheldon told the board.

But Sheldon also asked that the board resolve the matter promptly, explaining the hotel needed to move on from the issue at the direction of its new ownership. On Thursday, he said he had believed the matter had been resolved, but learned a week ago that a fine would be assessed.

The resort’s previous owners, the Watermark Lodging Trust, was acquired earlier this year by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. of Toronto. The cash transaction, valued at $3.8 billion, was first announced in May and completed on Oct. 21.

“It had to be taken care of for the transaction to be finalized,” Sheldon said Thursday.

A Manchester Business Association survey, made public during a housing forum last month, showed area businesses have had to reduce hours due a lack of workers — and that workers need studio and one-bedroom apartments or single-family houses.

“I think if we didn’t have housing available, and we weren’t able to utilize the 1811 House, it’d be significant,” Sheldon said. “We’re lucky enough we have the 1811 House, we have some other options on property that are able to house associates. ... Without that, we’d be looking at not operating restaurants seven days a week or not having certain venues open.”

The saga dates back to last spring, when the Equinox and Burr and Burton Academy swapped properties in the residential neighborhood near both institutions.

CWI Manchester Hotel LLC transferred its property at 43 Williams St. to Burr and Burton Academy on March 31, according to property records on file with the Manchester Town Clerk’s office. In a separate transaction the same day, BBA transferred its property at 27 Dillingham Ave., which had been used as a dormitory for international students, to the hotel’s ownership.

According to VanDerWielen and village public records, the village learned on May 27 that the hotel intended to use the house as employee housing. The village informed the hotel that was not an approved use under its zoning ordinance, and that it would need to seek a variance.

BBA’s use of the house as a dorm was permitted in 2004, and that educational dormitories are regulated by the state Agency of Education, according to VanDerWielen.

“We thought because it had been used that way before that it would transfer,” Sheldon said Monday.

But VanDerWeiden said once the house was no longer a dorm, it was again subject to restrictions applying to residential zoning.

A notice of violation was sent June 2, alleging that the hotel was housing 12 to 14 workers at the property. The village received complaints from a number of neighbors, alleging noise, cars coming and going late at night, and improper disposal of trash, attracting bears to the neighborhood.

According to Sheldon, the hotel had owned and used the house at 43 Williams St. as employee housing for about 10 years, ending that practice in March 2020 when the COVID pandemic shut down operations. A year later, management started having discussions with BBA about the property’s future, he said, leading to the property swap. Among its dorms, the Dillingham house was farthest from the Seminary Avenue campus.

But 43 Williams St. is in the same residential district as 27 Dillingham Ave. Why was its use as employee housing allowed for 10 years?

“It’s a great question,” Sheldon. “It’s 100 yards down the street. It’s the same neighborhood. But it is what it is.”

VanDerWeiden said he could not find any record that past village zoning administrators or review boards had granted the hotel permission to use 43 Williams St. as employee housing. But once the property swap happened, and there were questions about the change of use at 27 Dillingham Ave., “we had a legal obligation to act this way.”

The hotel then sought a variance for 27 Dillingham Ave. in June. The Village Development Review Board unanimously declined the request — “based on a lack of adequate proof to have met the requirements for a variance,” according to the meeting minutes.

That left it to the village trustees to make a decision on Monday, Nov. 7 — and it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

Village Board of Trustees Chairman Tom Deck was concerned that a letter submitted to the Development Review Board by Trustee Anthony MacLaurin and variance hearing testimony provided by board member Nina Mooney might constitute conflicts of interest. Further complicating matters, two additional members of the board were absent: James Lewis was not in attendance, and Bill Mariano resigned from the board effective Monday.

Deck also contemplated whether that question could be avoided by letting VanDerWielen handle the fine administratively. However, Village Treasurer Donald Brodie advised the board that since it was a financial transaction, it required their approval.

The impasse cleared when Sheldon asked the board to act, saying that he needed to resolve the issue, and that he trusted Mooney and MacLaurin to be objective.

The board then voted 3-0 to assess a fine, pending the advice of legal counsel.

That advice was obtained Tuesday, and VanDerWielen said he was advised that Mooney and MacLaurin were both acting as private citizens and not as board members when they commented on the hotel’s variance request, and that involvement did not constitute a conflict.

Reach Greg Sukiennik at gsukiennik@manchesterjournal.com or at 802-447-7567, ext. 119.

Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.

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