Council OKs amended rezoning request from Solterra developers

LAKEWOOD – City Council gave the nod to a compromise rezoning for portions of the Rooney Valley, consolidating three development plans covering seven separate planning areas just southeast of C-470 and West Alameda Boulevard under the Solterra West banner and it’s design standards.

The compromise crafted by Ward 4 Councilman Adam Paul gained unanimous approval from weary Council members shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, drawing applause from the handful of citizens remaining in Council Chambers.

The proposal, filed by Chris Brenner of Solterra LLC, sought to reduce some residential lot frontages by as much as 40 percent. It also would shuffle the allowed number of residential to allow more multifamily housing, increase the area for commercial development and designate a single mixed-use area. But the total number of residential units would remain unchanged at just more than 1,600.

“We think that the vision will remain, the character will remain, the quality of the development will remain unchanged,” said Mike Parthymuller of Brookfield Residential, who spoke on behalf of the applicant at Monday’s meeting. “It will be a very high-quality development.

But a number of folks who already own homes in the upscale Solterra community believe otherwise and made their feelings clear, many saying the proposed rezoning changes not only the character of Solterra, but changes the deals they made.

“My wife and I, my family, were sold a bill of goods,” said resident Brian Henning. “The proposal on the table is to change what Solterra is all about.

Resident John Murtha questioned the rezoning’s “benefit” to the 150 to 200 families who already made a “significant” investment in their Rooney Valley homes.

“This was sold to me as a masterpiece community,” Murtha said. We believe this (rezoning) will change that.”

Murtha was one of several Solterra residents who said the proposal amounts to a “bait and switch” that begs the credibility of the marketing claims made before they bought their homes.

And some Council members, including Ward 5 Councilman Tom Quinn raised questions about the process, which originally included only one sparsely attended meeting with the residents. Only after a similar question arose during the Planning Commission hearing on the rezoning did developers schedule a second formal neighborhood meeting.

“When in doubt about holding a second meeting, don’t ask, just go ahead and do it,” Quinn told the developers’ representatives.

Councilman Paul, who represents Solterra as one of Council’s Ward 4 representatives, echoed the concerns of residents and called for compromise, offering changes to the proposal that would change minimum lot widths to 40 feet and establish a minimum of 45 feet in two areas; exclude attached housing units from one area; and set aside a total of two acres in sites across Solterra for “neighborhood amenities” to be determined in part by residents.

“I think there’s some give there. I feel comfortable,” Paul said after the Solterra representatives agreed to the compromise approved by Council.