The Lakewood Planning Fee has accepted a proposed condominium constructing on the fringe of Belmar Park that spurred a yearslong debate, a lawsuit and adjustments to the town’s land-use code.
A significant web site plan for the 411-unit condominium constructing was accepted 5-0 late Wednesday night time by the Planning Fee, with the members concluding that the mission complied with Lakewood’s zoning code.
The brand new five-story construction will substitute an previous vacant workplace constructing that’s already underneath demolition on the five-acre web site at 777 S. Yarrow St. The redevelopment has been opposed for a number of years by Lakewood residents who really feel it threatens the bucolic nature of Belmar Park and its plentiful and numerous chook inhabitants. At occasions, the matter introduced tons of of individuals to metropolis corridor in protest.
That opposition boiled into an effort to place a measure on the municipal poll final fall that might have dramatically elevated the quantity of open area builders must dedicate to their tasks. It additionally would have eliminated the choice for builders to pay a charge as an alternative of dedicating land.
The Metropolis Council determined to preempt the poll measure in November by straight adopting the brand new land-use code adjustments as an ordinance.
Texas-based Kairoi Properties LLC, the developer behind the Belmar Park mission, sued the town a number of weeks later, claiming that the brand new open area and parkland dedication necessities would sink its mission. A Jefferson County district choose agreed with the developer, granting a preliminary injunction in January towards Lakewood implementing its new guidelines towards Kairoi.
The choose discovered that the brand new ordinance “poses a hazard of actual, rapid, and irreparable harm as a result of the Initiative would have an effect on Plaintiffs’ pursuits in actual property, together with lack of property …”
Within the meantime, Lakewood’s new open area necessities introduced fearful property homeowners to the council chambers earlier this yr after the town decided the foundations needed to be utilized to any residential improvement or redevelopment, regardless of how small. After intense pushback, the council restored the fee-in-lieu possibility for residential tasks.
Lakewood resident Cathy Kentner, who helped lead the signature-gathering effort for final yr’s poll measure, mentioned she wasn’t stunned by the Planning Fee’s vote.
“As a substitute of standing up for the elements of metropolis code that might require a scaled-back mission that respects folks and the atmosphere, the Planning Fee selected to cherry-pick elements of Lakewood Municipal Code, permitting for limitless developer revenue on the expense of individuals and our pure atmosphere,” Kentner mentioned Thursday.
She mentioned she expects Save Belmar Park, a citizen advocacy group, to problem the approval in court docket.
Wednesday’s Planning Fee vote was the town’s last say on the mission. Lakewood metropolis spokeswoman Staci Oulton mentioned the council won’t be taking a vote on the matter.
The one step left for Kairoi, Oulton mentioned, is acquiring a constructing allow, which is “an administrative overview by the town’s constructing division.”
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