A developer seeking to construct a 35-room hotel on Flagstaff Mountain in Jim Thorpe received conditional preliminary approval from the borough on Thursday night.

Tim Markley, president of Surreal Properties and the owner of Flagstaff Ballroom, told council the three-story project is scaled down from the original goal of a five-story, 78-room condominium hotel."This is more of a boutique hotel," he said. "It will have balconies on some of the rooms. It just fits the community better than a larger hotel."Markley had the plans for the smaller, roughly 23,500-square-foot, project before the Carbon County Planning Commission in February 2014, when they were rejected for not meeting a number of requirements within Jim Thorpe's land development ordinance.After addressing the issues, Markley and engineer Kevin Strunk said there is more work to be done, but they hoped Thursday's conditional preliminary approval would be a positive sign to investors that things are moving forward."There are other reviews that need to be completed such as the borough engineer, county and the Department of Environmental Protection, but we feel we're coming fairly far along with this," Strunk said.Kim Mazur, Jim Thorpe Borough's engineer, said he has been heavily involved with the project over the past few months."There has been a lot of progress made," Mazur said. "Ivan (Meixell Jr.) with the county planning office said when he gets the next set of plans, he anticipates conditional approval as well."The first-floor layout, Markley and Strunk explained, will be mostly public space.They said they're looking at handicap accessible rooms and several bridal suites as well.Plans include keeping Gallo's Pub and reopening it as a tavern, which Strunk said would "help facilitate the Flagstaff Ballroom," which remains on site.With the change from a five-story to a three-story building, Markley, who purchased the property in 2003, will again need to go before Jim Thorpe's zoning hearing board.He received the board's blessing on his larger project when it was first pitched in 2007, but legal technicalities and other issues in the plan that surfaced in 2008 and 2009 have kept the project from starting.Just down the mountain from the ballroom, Jacob Arner, of Awesome View Properties, is proposing an 86-home development.Borough officials, however, said Thursday they were concerned with how Flagstaff Road, which is in need of major repair, would hold up if all the construction eventually took place."That road was never built for major equipment, the kind which would be required if these projects go forward," Councilman John McGuire said.Arner agreed in 2005 to pay the borough $153,000 for improvements to the road, an amount that has now escalated to $217,000 with inflation.Council, however, said it thinks the entire road could cost over $1 million to do over again, including drainage."There is a stretch that does need maintenance," Markley said. "At one time though, buses did go up there on a regular basis. When we are built, we won't have a continuation of heavy truck usage."