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State regulators have ordered the InterContinental Boston Hotel to remove an outdoor bar and signs that discourage the public from setting foot on its rear lawn and patio overlooking the Fort Point Channel.
The high-end Atlantic Avenue hotel violated the terms of its Chapter 91 license by installing signs along the Boston Harborwalk discouraging passersby from using the 33,000-square-foot area, according to a notice of noncompliance issued this week by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The bar is located in a 60-foot-wide area with protected public access under the hotel’s Chapter 91 license, state regulations governing the use of waterfront properties.
The hotel failed to maintain open space by installing signs that discourage “full, free and unconditional 24-hour public access,” DEP director of waterways Ben Lynch wrote. The letter lists a second violation for “privatization of public open space” because the license prohibits restaurant seating that restricts public access. The letter cited a June 28 site visit.
The DEP ordered the hotel to remove “all restaurant and bar seating, and any other gates, moveable landscaping, or other devices that restrict pedestrian access” to a 60-foot-wide zone extending from the seaward edge of the Harborwalk, and remove signs discouraging public access.
Messages left with the hotel and its owner, New York-based Extell Development Co., were not immediately returned.
Extell has 30 days to respond to the notice certifying that the violations have been corrected or face potential DEP fines.
