The owners of Lakewood Theater are planning a two-level parking garage on Paulus, which backs up to the theater.
The parking structure would have 60 spaces where there is vacant land now. The property has a 7.5-foot elevation change, which could allow the owners to install some 30 spaces partially underground and 30 spaces at street level.
Rutledge-Willingham, the Lake Highlands-based property company that owns the land and the theater, must gain approval from the City Plan Commission to go ahead with the project. That’s because the property consists of two lots totaling 16,000 square feet. This project requires that the land be combined into one lot, and Planned Development District rules for that street prohibit lots bigger than 8,500 square feet.
The company has been meeting with neighborhood groups about the project, and so far, the reaction has been positive, says Bill Willingham of Rutledge-Willingham. Willingham says he thinks they could get a permit for 30 parking spaces without the zoning change, but the two-level garage makes more sense.
“There is a shortage of parking now,” he says.
