Proposed site plan for new White Rock YMCA. Click for an enlarged view.
From reading Lakewood Hills’ Facebook page, it looks like a number of neighbors plan to be at tomorrow’s City Plan Commission meeting, during which the White Rock YMCA is requesting a zoning change and variance for its proposed site at Gaston and Loving:
“The YMCA coming to our neighborhood is NOT a done deal!” the Facebook page states. “If you want to see the YMCA take that abandoned space, it is important that our neighborhood have a strong showing at the zoning meeting on Thursday. As you know, the YMCA moving is essential to the development of the corner of Gaston and Garland Rd.”
The referenced development is Lincoln Property Co.’s plan to build a high-end retail center on that corner. Lincoln has a contract to purchase the land where the White Rock Y and Far West are now, and has already purchased two other tracts of land on the Gaston-Garland-Grand intersection — the two-story retail development where Subway is and the former Backyard Beach Bar.
The updated site plan, above, is not too different from what neighbors saw at a recent presentation. There have been “minor modifications,” says Santos Martinez of Masterplan Consultants, which is representing the Y’s zoning case. The modifications include 115 parking spaces rather than 110, a defined area for a new monument sign, and a defined Gaston entry.
We interviewed Gloria Tarpley, the plan commissioner who is handling this zoning case, for a story in May’s magazine. She told us she thinks the Y is “a particularly good use for [the land] sandwiched between the apartments and the houses.” She also said that she was hearing overwhelming support of the project, except for feedback from Joe Kast, who lives across from the proposed YMCA site and whose somewhat common dilemma we profiled.
Find the full agenda item after the jump.
