The Portsmouth Zoning Board of Adjustment has rejected a plan for a hotel outside of the city’s downtown amid complaints of traffic it would cause.

The plan, pitched by The Meadowbrook Inn Corp., would have seen an empty field replaced with a 116-key Holiday Inn Express on Route 1 Bypass.

Residents from a nearby neighborhood told the board that traffic on the bypass was already high, and the hotel could make it and a nearby dangerous intersection worse, according to the Portsmouth Herald.

The development team did not include a traffic study with its plans, earning criticism from board members, the paper said.