GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – In the coming days, developers will submit plans to the city of Travelers Rest for a hotel on Paris Mountain. The Inn at Altamont has drawn opposition from the community and county council leaders.

Now we’re getting a closer look at three studies showing how the project could impact the surrounding areas.

The development team is requesting annexation and rezoning of the land into the city. Under the county’s zoning—part of the land is listed as Environmentally Sensitive, and because of that residents have a lot of concerns about this type of development.

“It’s just not the place, it really, truly is not the place,” said Chip Martin, who lives near the hotel site.

Many residents like Martin loathe the idea of the 150-room Inn at Altamont as their new neighbor.

“You have service vehicles. You’d have, you know, people that are staying. Heaven forbid you know they have an outside event where they say they can take 2,000 people. It’s your worst nightmare,” he said.

Traffic—is one of the residents’ concerns. They worry the narrow and windy Altamont Road won’t handle constant cyclist, resident and hotel traffic. A traffic study evaluated 4 intersections near the site finding the hotel would create approximately 85 additional to-and-from trips in the PM peak hours, 69 in the AM peak hours.

But that wasn’t significant enough to recommend turning lanes on Altamont Road or changes to traffic lights at the base of the mountain. However, developers are making plans to create a separate bike path for cyclists.

Environmental concerns were another cry from residents. The developer’s other two studies found no impacts to endangered species or the 2 water streams on site.

“Out of 40 acres for the hotel, we’re only clearing an additional 4 acres of greenery,” said Krut Patel, CEO of The Divine Group.

But other environmental activists argue differently. Groups including Upstate Forever, Furman’s University Environmental Action Group, the SC Environmental Law Project and Save Our Saluda all believe they are significant risk for wildlife, erosion and runoff.

Each study was conducted by private local engineering firms. They will be submitted with the project details to the city of Travelers Rest. So they’ll be able to take all of that into consideration when making their decision to annex or not.

You can read the studies on their website here.

Copyright 2025 WHNS. All rights reserved.