Generally speaking, I wouldn't consider myself anti-hotel.

When I visit another city, I like to stay in one, preferably one with clean bedding, low noise and a price that doesn't require a home-equity loan.

But here in Asheville, we've developed a different take on hotels, and understandably so, as we've had an explosion in building of late, especially downtown. That would include the AC Hotel, the Cambria, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Marriott and the upcoming Arras Residences, which include condos and hotel rooms.

More:Asheville City Council rejects 170-room hotel, restaurant plan near Biltmore Village

In several cases, these buildings are improvements on what was there, which people tend to forget. Really, would you rather be looking at that gnarly, crumbling parking deck or the AC Hotel? The Big Brown & Tall eyesore (the former BB&T Building), or a reconditioned, actually three-dimensional Arras?

But I get it. It feels like we're overrun with tourists — 10.9 million a year, in the last study — and that leaves locals feeling squeezed out.

I bring all this up because Asheville City Council on May 14 is slated to either approve or deny a request from developers to transform the iconic Flatiron Building downtown into an 80-room boutique hotel. Opened in 1927, the building has long served as a relatively affordable office building for locals.

The building, at the corner of Wall Street and Battery Park Avenue, needs a lot of work, about $10 million worth. The owners and hotel developers say the only way they can make that investment work is to transform the building into a hotel with a speakeasy bar on the bottom floor, meaning that 70 small business tenants will have to move out.

Some local preservationists are on board with this, saying it's a good opportunity to keep the building intact and preserved.

More:'The rules have changed' in Asheville. What will it take to pass a new hotel project now?

That includes Jack Thomson, executive director of the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County, who said in April, "We don’t want these buildings to die a death of a thousand cuts."

To critics, it may feel like the city's soul is dying a death of a thousand cuts, or maybe a few dozen really sharp hotel projects.

The potential Flatiron transformation just feels wrong to some folks, and I've got to admit I'm one of them.

Why must a hotel be the answer to every real estate question in this town? How many hotels do we need? What about the working stiffs who can't afford to live or work here anymore? Why couldn't it work as office space or apartments?

To proponents of the plan, it's an example of progress, of the economic engine that keeps this community rolling. The cold, hard reality is that those millions of tourists help keep us afloat, they say.

Wherever you stand, it feels like a defining moment for Asheville.

For me, it does seem to crystallize in one building the city's overarching conundrum: Are we losing our soul to tourism and leaving regular working folks behind?

More:Asheville Flatiron Building project nears final step. City Council will now decide.

It makes me wonder: Will City Council will make a stand Tuesday?

None of this is simple, as denied requests tend to get challenged in court, and that gets expensive real quick.

City Council has challenged the hotel developers before, with varying results.

Back in January 2017, council denied a conditional use permit for a $24 million hotel proposal on the site of the former Buncombe County Sheriff's Office building on Haywood Street. But the developer took the city to court and won. Will the project go forward? We don't know yet. The city is taking its case to the state Supreme Court.

More:Asheville Embassy Suites hotel plan will by heard by N.C. Supreme Court

And who can forget the saga of the Extended Stay Hotel proposed for Biltmore Avenue?

Last October, City Council sent some pretty strong messages it wouldn't look kindly on the proposal for a 103-room hotel.

That came despite some really incredible sweeteners proposed by the developer, including job training for residents as well as investments in new playground equipment at the nearby Lee Walker Heights neighborhood and $500,00 for the city's affordable housing fund.

I'll note this hotel wasn't even downtown but more in the Mission Hospital area. Honestly, that rejection seemed a bit extreme to me, although I got that council wanted to know more about the potential for affordable housing on the site and likely wages of the hotel's employees.

The developer withdrew the proposal but came back in March for another shot. City Council approved the proposal on a 4-3 vote.

Bigger issues were at play. That October meeting sparked a discussion about the notorious hotel occupancy tax that pumps some $23 million into the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority.

In between the two meetings, BCTDA temporarily suspended its Tourism Product Development Fund cycle and hired a consultant to chart how the money could be better spent in the next decade, on items such as local infrastructure projects, for example. The city has been crying foul for years, saying hotels don't pay their fair share for infrastructure upkeep.

You may be thinking a lot of hotel development and approval is all about leverage, and you'd be right. Council wants to get more out of hotel developers in regards to commitments for better pay and contributions to affordable housing.

That's wise, because once the hotel goes up, it's not going anywhere for a long, long time.

After a spate of hotel building that it essentially had no control over, City Council voted in January 2018 to have the final say over all hotels within city limits, regardless of size.

Of course, the cynic in me wants to thank all these hotel developers for building the city's future housing for low-income elderly, as that's what several once-famous hotels have become, including the Battery Park Apartments and the Vanderbilt Apartments.

But I fear that if approved, the Flatiron Hotel will become emblematic of Asheville — a pretty facade on the outside, exuding history and charm, but really just another heads-in-beds mill making the tourism cash register jingle.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 828-232-5847 or jboyle@citizentimes.com.