“We’re just not talking about Waites Wharf, but the Hammetts Wharf and Brenton hotels that are going up now and the Fifth Element hotel planned for Broadway. There is an over development of hotels that is out of sync with a historical town. They don’t fit in and they take away from our beautiful city.”

NEWPORT — “No more hotels on the waterfront” was the chant of almost 50 people who gathered in front of City Hall on Monday evening before a Zoning Board of Review meeting.

“Veto City Hall Plans”, “We need a moratorium on all zoning issues”, “We need to save Newport’s historical value and legacy”, and “Enough already! No More Hotels” were some of the messages on signs they were carrying.

The protest had been picking up steam more than a week ago after neighbors saw a 150-room waterfront hotel proposed for Waites Wharf was on the zoning board agenda. Last Tuesday, the agenda was amended to show the hearing had been postponed until Oct. 28, but area residents decided to make their voices heard before the meeting anyway.

“We were protesting this one hotel at first,” said Connie Bischoff, a resident of the Coddington Wharf condominiums adjacent to Waites Wharf. “But to think there could be a moratorium on all new hotels for Newport would be really great. There has to be a master plan and traffic studies done for Newport before any new plans proceed.”

She had a commercially printed sign that said: “Hit Pause for Newport.”

Bischoff said she met last week at the home of urban planner Ron Fleming on Bellevue Avenue with a group of people who have lined up support from about 20 organizations behind the push for a master plan for the city before any major development continues.

“We’re just not talking about Waites Wharf, but the Hammetts Wharf and Brenton hotels that are going up now and the Fifth Element hotel planned for Broadway,” said Trudy White of Ayrault Street. “There is an over development of hotels that is out of sync with a historical town. They don’t fit in and they take away from our beautiful city.”

“We already have many successful B&Bs, inns and hotels,” said Terry Thoelke, who lives off Broadway. “No one looks out for them. We don’t want to over saturate the area, because there is not enough business for all of them. Some would have to shut down.”

She said a consultant firm based at least 200 miles from Newport should be hired to conduct a “business impact analysis.”

“Locally based firms are too easy for special interests to influence,” she said.

“Newport is getting so popular that no one will want to come here anymore — to echo Yogi Berra,” said Tim Harrington, who lives off Bellevue Avenue. “I object to the whole concept of all these new hotels and the fact that more are coming. This is not Miami Beach.”

Some of the protesters picked up a bullhorn and spoke to the crowd, including Bischoff and Thoelke.

“I’m here because I’m angry the city is not doing its job of protecting the waterfront,” said John Nicolace of Coddington Wharf. “They don’t have the infrastructure for added sewerage, and maybe electricity, water and what else.”

“We have to start showing up at all these meetings, or as many as we can,” said Bob Carbone of Spring Street. “This is a great turnout. We need to get friends and neighbors involved in every aspect of this process.”

He said when people from The Point and Coddington Wharf neighborhoods showed up in large numbers to a City Council meeting at the end of June to protest the expansion of entertainment licenses at Guerney’s Hotel and @The Deck Restaurant, they were “able to get the City Council to change its mind on what they were going to vote for.”

“We have these terrible buildings going up because we’re not fighting back,” said Beth Cullen, a resident of The Point.

Thomas Abruzese of Yonkers, New York, is the main owner of the western end of Waites Wharf where the newest hotel complex is planned. He owns the lots in conjunction with limited liability companies he has formed: Harbour Realty, LLC; Tomorl, LLC; 20 West Extension, LLC; and Waites Wharf Realty Association, LLC.

The development plan review process instituted a year ago by the city puts projects like this under the oversight of the Planning Board, assisted by a new Technical Review Committee made up of 11 city officials. That process must be completed before the Zoning Board of Review tentatively takes up the Waites Wharf application in October.

Bischoff called through the bullhorn at the conclusion of the protest: “We are angry about this and are not going to give up.”

sflynn@newportri.com