On Monday, May 20th, the city of Lakewood will be voting to rezone the Marathon station at 13900 Lake Ave to a high density planned development right in the middle of a medium density neighborhood. The only reason they are doing this is so that the site developer, WXZ, can ignore housing setback codes and force in a 5-building cluster home that doesn't fit into the space. Normal setbacks should follow all other properties in the neighborhood: 50 feet from the Building Line in front, 40 feet from the back property line and 10 feet on each side. What they want is only about 26 feet from the Building Line in front and around 6 feet from the back property line. Not only does this not fit into our neighborhood, but this will show other developers that subdividing properties is feasible in our neighborhood.
From the limited information on remediation costs (to remove the station's gas tanks) WXZ has provided, building 4 houses would give them a decent profit and better comply with the zoning setbacks. But WXZ is set on building 5 houses and refuses to work with the neighbors in any meaningful way to solve this problem. The Lakewood Planning Commission and Building Department have also turned a deaf ear to these serious zoning issues. Please sign this petition so our voices will be heard and that we can convince the city council that there is a much better use of this space. Something that will fit into our neighborhood without permanently changing our landscape.
