Lakewood council adopts planned development zoning for Donald and Thoreau after committee review

Lakewood City Council on a special meeting voted to adopt an ordinance to amend the zoning map to allow a planned unit development at Donald and Thoreau after the Housing, Planning & Development Committee favorably referred the proposal.

The ordinance, brought to committee for further review after resident emails and follow-up meetings, was the subject of discussion about buffering, pedestrian connections to nearby Cove Park and traffic and parking impacts. The planning commission had unanimously recommended the PUD, and city staff presented traffic and parking analyses showing the development is expected to remain below local traffic-calming thresholds.

Council President Keppel said the committee had taken an extra week to review the proposal and that members had met with residents and the developer to seek improvements. "We were prepared tonight and, a lot of good collaborative work," Keppel said, thanking residents and the developer for engaging in the follow-up discussions.

Sean McDermott, chair of the Planning Commission, told the committee that the commission treated the application seriously as a planned development tool and voted unanimously on both preliminary and final versions before forwarding the item to architecture board review. "We felt that they were able to accomplish the goals of the plan development chapter," McDermott said.

Paul Beagan, of Beagan Architectural Design, confirmed he and the developer had been communicating with nearby residents about additional plantings and screening but said no final agreement had been reached: "I'm not aware of anything that's been finalized yet."

Resident Dave Kermaud, 1286 Thoreau, told the committee he felt the conversations between the developer and neighbors had been productive: "I don't get the impression that lines of communication will drop ... so feeling optimistic," he said.

Assistant Director Boss summarized traffic and parking analysis presented at the prior meeting and reiterated the data to committee members. He said the proposed development would provide roughly 254% of the city's minimum parking requirement for the site: each of the 11 units would include a two-car garage (22 spaces) plus six additional overflow spaces for a total of 28 on-site spaces. Boss said engineers with TMS predicted approximately 27 weekday morning peak trips and 26 weekday evening peak trips attributable to the project. He noted the measured average daily traffic on Thoreau was about 516 cars per day and that measured speeds placed the street well below the city thresholds used for traffic-calming consideration.

Committee members and staff also discussed safety and pedestrian access. Councilperson Strybick raised concern about the lack of a fence between a path to Cove Park and the nearby railroad and urged at minimum a chain-link fence to protect pedestrians and pets. Councilman Baker said the city could include an easement on the plat for the sidewalk and that the city could reserve the option to install fencing later if deemed necessary for safety. Director Byington said staff had not yet discussed that specific fence language with the developer but could include language giving the city the option to install fencing if Council requested it.

Committee members said buffering, traffic/parking and the quality and connectivity of the public pathway were the primary substantive issues. Several members voiced that the developer had increased setbacks and agreed to additional plantings during follow-up discussions with neighbors, and that the public benefit of the new paved connection to Cove Park weighed in favor of approving the PUD.

Council President Keppel moved to favorably refer the ordinance to full council. The committee recorded no opposition and referred the ordinance. At the ensuing special council meeting the full City Council adopted the ordinance by unanimous voice vote.

Council and staff noted a follow-up implementation item: city staff will provide proposed easement language to the architect for the public pathway. At the end of the meeting a staff member said, "I will send Paul the proposed easement language."