Lakewood – Officials of a Sam’s Club proposed near Pinehurst Country Club say they will look for another southwest metro site after the Lakewood City Council denied their rezoning request early Tuesday.
Council members voted 8-2 to deny rezoning for a Sam’s Club wholesale outlet to be built at 7205 W. Quincy Ave.
An effort by 12 adjacent home owner associations – working under the umbrella Citizens Against the Re-Zoning, or CARZ – raised traffic, noise, safety, drainage, property value and quality-of-life concerns about the 138,000- square-foot project. The council listened to comments on the project beginning Monday evening.
“As tired as we were, we were really happy,” said Sandra Payne, who lives just south of the site. “We are thrilled.”
Sam’s Club officials notified the city Friday that if the council did not approve the rezoning, then they intended to petition the issue onto the ballot. But the petition idea has been abandoned, said Keith Morris, spokesman for Sam’s Club headquarters in Arkansas.
“We sent that in after the opposition raised the issue by saying they would seek a referendum if the rezoning passed,” Morris said.
CARZ filed a legal protest last week after getting enough adjacent homeowners’ signatures to require a “supermajority” of eight council votes before the project could be approved.
Morris said the ballot drive would have been undertaken if the council voted for the project but not by a supermajority.
Morris said the area’s current Sam’s Club at 4827 S. Wadsworth Blvd. in Denver will remain open.
There is no timetable for finding a site to replace the current store, which at 102,000 square feet is too small to accommodate “amenities” that new Sam’s Clubs offer, Morris said.
“I had a real problem with placing a large big-box store in an established community like that,” Councilman Ed Peterson said.
Mayor Steve Burkholder said the sales-tax revenues were one reason he supported the rezoning, but, he added, “I can live with the vote.”
Sam’s Club officials estimated the store would have given $1.7 million annually in sales- tax revenues to the city, which is facing $12.5 million in budget cuts over two years.
Burkholder and Councilman Bob Murphy, who also voted yes, said they believed the area’s traffic problems could have been eased with a project helping to pay for road improvements.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
