WESTPORT — A public hearing on the highly anticipated project to transform the shuttered Westport Inn into an upscale hotel known as the Delamar Westport has been delayed.

Plans to redevelop the property at 1595 Post Road, first reported by the Westport Journal last October, were scheduled to be reviewed next Monday, July 11, by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

But Mary Young, the town’s planning director, said Friday the application has been withdrawn from the meeting’s agenda and is now rescheduled for the P&Z’s review on Sept. 12.

Initially, plans by the new owners, WI Associates, to redevelop the Westport Inn property — as outlined before the Architectural Review Board in April — called for 41 hotel rooms, 10 rental units with garages, and a makeover of the part of the building facing Post Road East.

But at a subsequent hearing before the ARB in late June, the developers substantially revised the plans, proposing more than double the number of rooms in the hotel to 85 rooms and totally eliminating the housing units. 

That version of the plan won the ARB’s backing, with the proviso that the developers rework the landscaping plans, including planting new trees other than ginkos.

The plan, then forwarded to the Planning and Zoning Commission, called for a three-story addition, demolition of the front building, an onsite restaurant, bar area, event/meeting space, fitness center, minor additions to the rear building, addition/expansion of landscaped areas and driveway/parking improvements.

However, before the P&Z can rule on the specific site plans, the applicants are asking for approval of a text amendment (No. 818) to facilitate “appropriate standards for the redevelopment and site design,” according to Young’s announcement.

WI Associates is being represented before town boards by Rick Redniss, principal planner at Redniss and Mead, and Bruce Beinfield, principal at Beinfield Architects.