After listening to comment during a second public hearing Monday night, the board of trustees approved a special permit request from the Landmark Inn to become a 12-room hotel.

The special permit does not come without restrictions, however.

During discussions following the hearing, board members decided to place conditions on the permit which include, annual renewal of the special permit, no further expansion, and no bar or restaurant which serves the public.

"It starts limiting your ability to serve food and drinks to guests," village attorney John Lambert told the applicants, Ed and Marge Landers and their son and daughter-in-law, Peter and Jennifer Landers.

Putting restrictions on the special permit eased the minds of trustees, who listened to many comments expressing concerns about allowing the conversion of a tourist accommodation to a hotel.

"It would change my vote," trustee Stuart Taugher said of the restrictions.

The special permit will increase the number of rooms the inn may rent from nine to eleven when the Landers living quarters are converted to rental rooms. The remaining room will be used for the manager's quarters. It will also mean there will no longer be the owner-occupied requirement like there is with a tourist accommodation

"I can't see why anyone would worry this is going to snowball," June Christman, a member of the zoning board of appeals, said during the hearing. "I see nothing but wonderful prospects."

Lake Street resident Carl Good said he agreed with the comment made during last month's hearing that granting the application would open Pandora's Box.

Good said it would mean a whole host of B&Bs could convert to hotels.

Mayor Waller assured him that all applications for hotel status would be taken on a case-by-case basis, but Good said he was still concerned about opening that door.

Former trustee Stephen Mahlum expressed concerns about the change in status. Mahlum said he believed one of the main intentions of the zoning law was to protect the residential character of village neighborhoods.

"I do have concerns the potential is there for problems," he said.

Taugher asked if making the permit renewable annually would alleviate some of Mahlum's worries. But Mahlum said he was concerned about what would happen in the rest of the village.

"If you allow more and more hotel permits, it becomes harder to disallow them," he said.

Former mayor Wendell Tripp said, like many others in the hearing, that he had the highest regard for the Landers and what they had done with the property since they acquired it in 1999.

"But that's beside the point," he said, adding that it was his belief that the residential character of the village had been eroded in the last ten years.

Because of the good character of the applicant, it's hard to look at negatively," he said, but it takes another chip out of the rock of residential character."

Planning board chairman Paul Kuhn said he believed the precedent that many people were worried about had already been set by the cooper Inn and the Inn at Cooperstown.

"There is a great precedent for hotels on Chestnut Street," he said. "If this doesn't qualify for hotel status, I don't know what does.

Kuhn said if the board did not approve the application, it would be setting a precedent that says no more hotels in Cooperstown.

Michael Jerome, the former owner of the Inn at Cooperstown and previous chairman of the planning board, said the question for the board of trustees is whether a business in a residential zone should be allowed to expand.

"The Landers," he said, "should not be granted a permit."

Jerome told the board a hotel is a lot more commercial than a tourist accommodation and that the Landmark Inn is already listed on the Small Elegant Hotels website as having 11 rooms with a spacious back lawn that is the perfect place for small receptions and other gatherings.

Traffic, noise and lighting will increase and the neighborhood will change forever, he said.

"It sets a precedent for other businesses in residential areas that want to expand. The good of the community must supersede the interest of the property owner," he said.

Fire chief Jim Tallman commented that the Landers have proven to be nothing but upright, forthcoming people. "Why would you even consider voting this down?" he asked.

Peter Landers told the board that in order to preserve some of the village's large old homes, they would have to consider allowing some adaptive re-use of the structures.

Main Street businessman Rick Gibbons said that the village had lost rooms in recent years as some B&Bs were returned to residences and that he supported the Landmark Inn's status change.

The board's vote was five-to-one in favor of the application. Trustee Milo Stewart was the only dissenting vote. Mayor Carol Waller did not cast a vote.

Stewart said it seemed to him the board was being asked to grant the application as a space consideration for the younger Landers, who currently live in what they described as cramped quarters at the inn and want to be able to live off-site where they would have more room to raise their family.

They moved into the situation knowing what the conditions were, Stewart said.