Douglas County Commissioners voted Wednesday to postpone awarding over $30,000 in grant money to a project aiming to restore and convert a historic Lawrence home into a hotel.

Commissioners said the project, which centers around the former home of Civil War-era architect John Haskell at 1340 Haskell Ave., has not yet received the proper permits from the city of Lawrence to become a commercial establishment.

The grant application was one of 30 submitted for the 2014 Heritage Grant Program, which awards over a quarter million dollars to projects seeking to preserve Douglas County’s heritage and natural resources.

The Heritage Conservation Council, which evaluates all the applicants, made its recommendations for grant allotments to the commission Wednesday. The council had the Haskell house project pegged for $31,250, one of two “major grants.”

Eleven other projects were recommended and approved Wednesday, dolling out a total of $245,000. The largest grant, $147,500, went to Kelly Kindscher, a Kansas University environmental studies professor, to inventory natural areas and habitats within the county.

The matter of obtaining city approval did not come to the attention of the commission or the Heritage Conservation Council until Wednesday, prior to the evening meeting. Two neighbors to the Haskell house, Aron and Sarah Cromwell, contacted the commission to point out there has not been any public forum for nearby residents to air any concerns for a hotel conversion.

The project description says grant money would be used for adding an ADA entrance, repairs to the building’s exterior, window restoration and updating interior electrical wires. It says the hotel, which would have four rooms, would also provide “dining, drinking and catering services.”

Aaron and Kendra Marable are the applicants behind the project.

All three commissioners agreed the project should first solicit city approval before a vote to receive any grant money, which are publicly funded.

“This process needs to be resolved, we need to know what we’re dealing with,” Mike Gaughan, first district, said.

Jim Flory, third district, criticized the idea of funding any project that had a private business aspect. He voted to deny grants for most, but not all, of the other applications.

Flory has long been an opponent of the Heritage Grant Program for diverting public funds away from other services.

“Where an individual or a private organization has an economic benefit, my question is whether individual property taxpayers should be supporting that,” Flory said.