By Karen Klinger

Porter Square residents are wondering what will happen now at the site of the Japanese-Korean Kaya restaurant after the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal turned down the owner's bid to tear down the eatery and put up a 50-room hotel.

Despite a show of support for the project by a number of neighbors, the board voted 4-to-1 at a lengthy February 28 hearing to reject owner Meehn Su Gim's request for a variance to build a five-story hotel and attached 210-seat restaurant on the property at 1924 Massachusetts Ave.

Board member Gus Alexander reflected the majority opinion, saying "It's too much of a building for this site," adding, "You're asking us to rezone the property, and that's not our jurisdiction."

"You get an 'A' for effort," board member Edward Wayland told
Gim and his architect, Michael McKee, noting that they had met repeatedly with abutters and other neighbors over the course of a year and had modified the project to meet their concerns. But he said Gim was attempting to deviate too far from zoning regulations by proposing to build a structure with more than twice the allowable square footage for a commercial building on the site.

Board member Timothy Hughes, the only one to vote in favor of the plan, said "As a community benefit, I can see this as a positive," but board chairman Brendan Sullivan countered, "I think it's too much building" and "it does disregard the zoning."

Among those speaking in opposition to the plan was City Councilor Craig Kelley, who agreed with Alexander's point that Gim was essentially asking the board to rezone the site, rather than simply grant him a variance to put up a building larger than the law allows. "This is really more my job and my peers on the city council," Kelley said.

Gim did not immediately indicate what his plans are now. During a meeting last summer of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, an attorney representing him indicated that if he were stymied in building a hotel he might opt instead to put up a residential structure. But Gim and McKee said a combination hotel and restaurant makes more sense, since the property is located in the commercial heart of Porter Square.