A block of homes in Lake Cliff will be demolished to make way for a 7-story apartment building. Photo by Emma Ruby.
Nearly 1,000 people have signed a petition against a rezoning request that would eliminate retail space in what is planned to be a seven-story apartment complex in Lake Cliff.
The petition was started by Lake Cliff resident Katrina Whatley and had gained 918 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
A block of homes currently stand where the complex is planned, and the demolition of the homes is allowed by current zoning. The block is bordered by N. Zang Blvd., W. 5th Street, N. Beckley Ave. and W 6th Street.
The developer, Slate Properties, plans to build a 253-unit complex in the block, a letter sent to neighbors last October by Baldwin Associates, the firm assisting with the rezoning application, says.
The rezoning request asks that E. 5th Street, E. 6th Street and N. Beckley Ave. be reclassified as side streets, and the current requirement for retail space on the street level of those three streets be removed.
But Whatley said she believes new retail options would be the only advantage of losing single-family homes to a big development.
While she acknowledges the current zoning allows for the homes to be torn down, she said it has been hard living in the neighborhood since 2003 and watching “everything being stripped away.”
“It isn’t in the petition to change the demolition of those houses, but the developer knew the zoning when they bought that property. I feel like they’re taking advantage, they see all this other stuff happening here and think they can do that too,” Whatley told the Advocate. “If you’re going to tear down our history at least give us a little retail to have fun with. It’s just maddening.”
Reid Beucler, principal of Slate Properties, told Candy’s Dirt that the request to eliminate the retail requirement on the streets was a result of neighborhood meetings with the Lake Cliff Neighborhood Association.
In conversations with neighbors, there was a concern that the additional parking that would be required for the retail spaces would negatively impact traffic, he said.
But Whatley said she and several neighbors never heard about meetings being held with the neighborhood association, and that she feels concerns about traffic are a “bogus excuse.”
Whatley said that while she was not aware of a timeline for the request when she started the petition, she plans to stay involved as it rises to the city plan commission and city council levels.
According to city council member for District 1 Chad West, a city planner was just recently assigned to the rezoning request, so it will be at least six or seven months before the issue reaches the plan commission.
“(A change) should really only be done when there is a good reason for it such as a community benefit that wasn’t considered when the language was drafted,” West said.
He points to the recently passed Sprouts development as an example of a rezoning case that was approved because it benefits neighbors, despite not being allowed in the original zoning.
West said he hopes to see the Lake Cliff request go through the neighborhood and plan commission before he becomes involved.
