A FRESH application for a Premier Inn in Falmouth is due to be submitted this week after an appeal against refusal was dismissed.
It means campaigners' delight that the scheme for a 74-bed hotel at Cambeltown Way, Discovery Quay was dismissed, may be short lived.
New Cornwall Developments lodged an appeal after Cornwall Council's planning committee turned down the application in December.
But planning inspector Mike Fox said the impact on residents of neighbouring Fisher Court would be unacceptable.
"The proposed development would harm the living conditions of the occupiers of apartments three, four and five through significant loss of outlook."
And he said the windowless, "featureless" wall outside the kitchens would appear "overbearing".
The applicant was proposing an L-shape building varying from three to five storeys with 24 spaces in an undercroft car park.
Hundreds of people signed a petition against the application, which would have seen the hotel built on the site of a 39-space car park.
Tamara Brush and Sally Humphreys handed in a 120-page document detailing concerns.
Many felt it was the wrong location for a hotel, as well as having concerns about the effect on Fisher Court residents and on road safety as well as a lack of parking provision.
But Mr Fox said he did not agree with many of the reasons and concerns raised and only dismissed it on the one point.
Terry Barnes from New Cornwall Developments said although disappointed at the decision, he was pleased there was only one issue.
"The inspector agreed with everything except that one point and we are going to re-design that part of the building."
The revision will mean a reduction of a handful of rooms.
Mr Fox said the design, height and scale were not out of keeping and that a travel plan would address parking and delivery vehicle concerns.
Rosemary Ridette-Gregory, secretary of the Falmouth and District Hotels Association, said: "We are delighted with the decision. The development was wrong on so many levels and would have resulted in traffic and parking misery for locals and visitors to Falmouth alike.
"We are also really pleased for the residents of Fisher Court that they will not have to suffer this unneighbourly overdevelopment on their doorsteps.
"If the site cannot simply remain as a car park, which is our preferred option, we just hope that the site will be sold to a more enlightened developer who will come up with both a good use and a high quality design, sympathetic to the historic waterfront area."
