Mystic — The company that owns the Holiday Inn Express on Coogan Boulevard plans to build two hotels on land it has cleared behind the existing hotel.

J&H Hospitality LLC has filed an application with the Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission for a zone change and site plan approval for the $10 million project, which calls for a total of 217 new hotel rooms.

Plans call for two four-story hotels, one with 97 rooms and the other 120, with a total of 142,170 square feet. The existing Holiday Inn Express is 72,000 square feet. The parcel that contains the Holiday Inn Express also contains the Boathouse restaurant, which is being renovated. Renderings show one of the proposed hotels as a Homewood Suites by Hilton.

The commission will set a public hearing date on the application.

The group is asking to use the town’s Neighborhood Development Zone, a floating zone, for the project. The property is currently zoned tourist commercial, or TC-80, on 80,000-square-foot lots. Plans are to combine the lot containing the Holiday Inn Express and the restaurant with the lot for the two new hotels.

According to the application, the NDD designation would allow for construction of a parking lot between the hotels, as well as improved traffic circulation on the Holiday Inn Express property. Plans call for 250 parking spots. It also would allow for the land between the hotels to be used for amenities such as a pool, green space and a patio.

The application states the use of the NDD also would reduce the visual impact of the hotels and provide more of a vegetative buffer along three of the property lines, as compared to the TC-80 zone. The application also calls for a “significant enhanced vegetative buffer along the southern lot line with the Coogan Farm Nature & Heritage Center. Access to the new hotels would be off Clara Drive, the road that leads to McQuade’s Marketplace and Masonicare, as well as Coogan Boulevard.

j.wojtas@theday.com