Aiken, South Carolina-

A conversation within city of Aiken that’s grown in the last few weeks: a proposed change to an ordinance that would allow businesses to build upward to 75 feet.

Council voted unanimously to reject the ordinance change on Monday night. This is a big difference from last month’s approval of the first reading. Since the owner of Hotel Aiken withdrew his application to surpass the ordinance, it’s caused many to question why the change should go into place.

The proposed height change to one of Downtown Aiken’s largest businesses started a conversation in the community that wouldn’t go down.

“It was more than just this one project, although this one project, to be fair, did initiate the process of changing the building height ordinance,” said Dick Dewar, Aiken City Council member.

A change to allow owners to build up to 75 feet, instead of the now regulated 50 feet, concerned many who live within the district.

“Certainly, it was a wake-up call for so many of the folks to say basically, we don’t want it, we are trying to protect the character of this town,” said Lessie Price, Aiken City Council member.

Those voices have risen in the past month, and have even convinced the owner of Hotel Aiken to withdraw his request for consideration of building height change.

“It represents a massive change for the downtown, and a lot of people that are here came here because they like the way it is, and change, dramatic change like this, is really hard to put into effect,” said Dewar.

The owner said he has created new renderings to keep the height at just around 50 feet to stay within the guidelines of the current ordinance.

But some say, this type of mentality could slow Aiken’s development, like downtown restaurant owner Jeffrey Jordan.

“We just have to be careful that we don’t let the historical aspect of Aiken become historical in that people just remember when downtown was nice,” said Jordan, owner of Trio Bar and Kitchen.

After council’s decision to reject the ordinance change, Jordan spoke out about future decisions like this that will impact the city’s economy.

“I’m afraid that council’s decision not to have, and the community’s decision not to allow investment is going to deter future investors from coming in and investing in downtown, and keeping downtown vital and beautiful and vibrant like it is now,” said Jordan.

The issue of the parking deck, which has been discussed with the revitalization of Hotel Aiken, was brought up tonight with the rejection of the height change, but there were no decisions made on if, and how, that project will be affected.