The Carpinteria Planning Commission unanimously approved a 72-room hotel project slated for 4110 Via Real during Monday’s meeting, a project that has been in development for 10 years.

The hotel will be built on the site of a single-story church, a parking lot, a vegetable garden and storage buildings, according to the commission staff report.

The proposed hotel will be two stories high on a 2.6-acre site, according to developers. In addition to the 72 guest rooms and 77 parking spaces, the hotel will include a fitness center, a breakfast center, a meeting room, a business center, an outdoor pool and an outdoor patio. The hotel will require 12 employees in the day and eight employees overnight, according to the proposal.

“This process that we’ve gone through on this parcel, over 2 acres, just demonstrates how rigorous the review process is that the community goes through,” Planning Commissioner Glenn La Fevers said during the meeting.

The hotel project was first proposed in 2013, as a three-story, 30-foot-high structure, which was the city’s height limit.

Initial critiques of the project were that it was too bulky and tall, and would obstruct mountain views from the city.

Planning Commission chairwoman Jane Benefield said she has watched the project change since the beginning.

“In the beginning, it was like too many rooms, too much, it was just too much, and you’ve narrowed it down and you’ve listened to the community,” Benefield said. “So, I’m in favor of this project.”

“It seems it’s gone through a long birthing process,” Commissioner Katherine Salant said. “It morphed completely from what it started as, and it will fit into the scale of the neighborhood.”