RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) – A proposal to build an 88-room Hampton Inn on Route 7 has received the state land-use permit it needs to go forward.

But developers are waiting for the Act 250 appeal period to end before breaking ground on the hotel.

“We would actually like to begin this fall, but we’re waiting until the appeal period ends,” said Stephen Reynes, a Montpelier lawyer working for the hotel’s developers, Creative Hotel Associates of Rockville, Md.

The District 1 Environmental Commission issued an Act 250 permit for the hotel earlier this week. Plans to build the hotel have been opposed by the site’s neighbors.

The proposed location is a parcel of land between the Holiday Inn and the Green Mountain Shopping Plaza on the west side of Route 7.

There’s room enough on the 4-acre parcel for the three-story hotel and the 93-space parking lot that would surround it. But lawyers for the Holiday Inn, the plaza and the Red Roof Inn on the other side of Route 7 have argued that there’s no room on the short frontage road that would provide access to the hotel.

But in its decision, the commission wrote that the 10 vehicles that are estimated to enter and leave the Hampton Inn at its busiest time of day would pale compared to the traffic generated by its neighbor, the Holiday Inn.