AMHERST — University Motor Lodge, a 1960s-era hotel at the north end of downtown near Kendrick Park, could be converted into 16 apartments for college students.

Amherst Development Associates, LLC, which owns the 345 North Pleasant St. property, is coming before the Zoning Board of Appeals Aug. 8 at 6:35 p.m. seeking a special permit to accommodate the change at the 1-acre site, which is in the general residence zoning district and is considered a pre-existing, nonconforming use.

Town zoning allows social dormitories, related to Amherst College, Hampshire College or the University of Massachusetts, stipulating that these buildings are connected to the public sewer system, and are in areas close to heavily traveled streets, areas with business, commercial and educational districts, and areas already developed for multifamily use. There also must be a management plan.

Plans drawn up by Jager Associates LLC of Enfield, Connecticut, show that the 20 rooms at the hotel, and one office, would be renovated into 16 apartments, including 10 studios, five, one-bedrooms and one, two-bedroom. Each unit would have one bathroom and one parking space.

A project narrative provided to the Zoning Board of Appeals states that, “With continued appropriate management, a reduction in on-site density, consistency in tenancy (duration of tenancy compared with that of a transient motel), and with the additional oversight of the institution of higher education (which is a requirement of a social dormitory), the project will not be substantially different in character or in effect on the neighborhood or on the property in the vicinity.”

In recent years, the motel has mostly not operated like a typical hotel, instead providing overflow housing for UMass students and then rooms for guests of the Craig’s Place homeless shelter, especially during the COVID pandemic.

When built, the University Motor Lodge provided lodging near the growing UMass campus, supplementing another motor lodge on East Pleasant Street that opened in 1962 and later became the Amherst Carriage Shops. That former motel was demolished and redeveloped into the One East Pleasant mixed-use building in 2016.

The original Zoning Board of Appeals decision, in 1965, spelled out some of the conditions for the then new motel, including for its parking and signs, and that “there shall be no more than one television antenna mast” on the building, and that, aside from providing continental breakfast, the only merchandise sales on site shall be limited to “vending machine distribution of candy, soft drinks and cigarettes.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.