A house was demolished on Glenrose Court in Lakewood, which caused a bit of a “panic” among neighbors, as Debby Massie Lacy put it on the Lakewood, Dallas Facebook page.
The concern centers on the fact that the house is a part of the conservation district in Lakewood. Apparently someone told neighbors the conservation district has been withdrawn, but it was a false alarm, according to City Plan Commission vice-president Gloria Tarpley.
“The conservation district is alive and well in Lakewood,” Tarpley says.
Turns out you don’t need to withdraw a conservation district in order to bulldoze a house. The conservation district puts requirements on what can be built there, but “that doesn’t mean you can’t tear down and start over; you just have to start over under the regulations of the conservation district,” Tarpley explains.
I briefly talked with Robby Rahmani who co-owns the property, and he says he plans to build a house there that, of course, complies with the conservation district guidelines. If you would like to look at the guidelines, check out the attached document: Lakewood Conservation District.
Rahmani says he met with nearby neighbors to talk with them before bulldozing the home. We knocked on several doors yesterday evening but weren’t able to get ahold of anyone in the neighborhood to get their side of the story. Tarpley says several concerned neighbors called her to inquire about the conservation district, so she walked them through the document above and explained what can and cannot be built on the property.
Rahmani and his team will have to build a tudor-style home, “but that doesn’t mean an identical building has to be put in its place,” Tarpley says. There are also restrictions on how much of the property the house can fill, among other things.
Neighbor Kyle Rains, who was vice president of the effort to put the Lakewood Country Club Estates conservation district in place, says he thinks this is the first home ever demolished in Lakewood Country Club Estates since it was designated as a conservation district in 1988.
“It’s difficult to tear down a house in a historic district – I think you have to get certification from three or four city departments. However, it can be done in conservation districts — I believe the M-Streets are a good example of this. Also Vickery Place, though that slowed it down,” he pointed out.
“Many people are stunned that this has happened.”
Read more of the conversation on the Lakewood, Dallas Facebook page.
