DUBLIN — Despite two appeals alleging environmental concerns, mostly surrounding formaldehyde, the city of Dublin will move forward with plans for a 138-room hotel.

Dublin City Council denied two appeals, one by the West Dublin Alliance and the other by Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), alleging that the city did not follow environmental guidelines for the planned hotel on the corner of San Ramon Road and Dublin Boulevard.

The hotel will be at 7950 Dublin Blvd.; the site is currently a parking lot and the former site of a Hooters restaurant, which permanently closed in March. The six-story hotel, 90,700-square-foot building will include two stories of underground parking.

On Tuesday night, the council unanimously upheld the Planning Commission’s decision, which in April approved the project in a unanimous vote.

Both groups that appealed the Planning Commission’s decision brought up gas formaldehyde as a potential threat in the wood materials to be used to build the hotel. Exposure to formaldehyde could cause cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The groups appealing said that the potential exposure would exceed allowed standards.

Another issue brought up was concern for an endangered bird, the tricolored blackbird, to potentially harm themselves if they fly into windows of the hotel. The reflective glass could mimic the sky, confusing the animals and causing them to crash into windows, and kill them, appellants said.

The two groups appealing argued that the city should further study these environmental concerns, and did not adequately do so when the project went before the Planning Commission. The hotel project falls under the city’s downtown specific plan and used an environmental impact report approved by the city nine years ago in 2011. Appellants argued this report was outdated, and more recent considerations such as newer building materials needed to be studied.

Appellants provided their own studies to the city that they said demonstrated these potential impacts, they said.

“To just dismiss these reports, the public deserves a response from the city,” said Shirley Lewandowski, representing West Dublin Alliance.

Paige Fennie, from LIUNA, said the city’s own downtown specific plan “promised” further review, for new emissions thresholds. But the city argued that each project would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis: for this particular project, it was decided that no further study was needed.

The city also said it was not in violation of any environmental laws for further study, or its own downtown specific plan.

Councilman Shawn Kumagai said he agreed he doesn’t want anyone working in a toxic environment.

“I don’t think any of that is a question here. (I) don’t really get then when CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) is used as a weapon … It becomes a bludgeoning tool for projects that people don’t like,” he said.

The hotel will provide revenue to the city with a transit-occupancy tax that is expected to generate around $450,000 per year, or $2.5 million over five years. The developer, Jerry Hunt of VP-RPG Dublin, also agreed to install a new downtown Dublin monument sign. The design and construction of the sign is expected to cost the developer around $200,000 and will be placed on the corner of Dublin Boulevard and San Ramon Road.