The Lakewood Planning Commission has approved a proposed apartment building at the edge of Belmar Park that spurred a yearslong debate, a lawsuit and changes to the city’s land-use code.
A major site plan for the 411-unit apartment building was approved 5-0 late Wednesday night by the Planning Commission, with the members concluding that the project complied with Lakewood’s zoning code.
The new five-story structure will replace an old vacant office building that is already under demolition at the five-acre site at 777 S. Yarrow St. The redevelopment has been opposed for several years by Lakewood residents who feel it threatens the bucolic nature of Belmar Park and its plentiful and diverse bird population. At times, the matter brought hundreds of people to city hall in protest.
That opposition boiled into an effort to put a measure on the municipal ballot last fall that would have dramatically increased the amount of open space developers would have to dedicate to their projects. It also would have removed the option for developers to pay a fee instead of dedicating land.
The City Council decided to preempt the ballot measure in November by directly adopting the new land-use code changes as an ordinance.
Texas-based Kairoi Properties LLC, the developer behind the Belmar Park project, sued the city several weeks later, claiming that the new open space and parkland dedication requirements would sink its project. A Jefferson County district judge agreed with the developer, granting a preliminary injunction in January against Lakewood enforcing its new rules against Kairoi.
The judge found that the new ordinance “poses a danger of real, immediate, and irreparable injury because the Initiative would affect Plaintiffs’ interests in real property, including loss of property …”
In the meantime, Lakewood’s new open space requirements brought worried property owners to the council chambers earlier this year after the city determined the rules had to be applied to any residential development or redevelopment, no matter how small. After intense pushback, the council restored the fee-in-lieu option for residential projects.
Lakewood resident Cathy Kentner, who helped lead the signature-gathering effort for last year’s ballot measure, said she wasn’t surprised by the Planning Commission’s vote.
“Instead of standing up for the parts of city code that would require a scaled-back project that respects people and the environment, the Planning Commission chose to cherry-pick parts of Lakewood Municipal Code, allowing for unlimited developer profit at the expense of people and our natural environment,” Kentner said Thursday.
She said she expects Save Belmar Park, a citizen advocacy group, to challenge the approval in court.
Wednesday’s Planning Commission vote was the city’s final say on the project. Lakewood city spokeswoman Staci Oulton said the council will not be taking a vote on the matter.
The only step left for Kairoi, Oulton said, is obtaining a building permit, which is “an administrative review by the city’s building department.”
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