Neighbors Appeal Planning Commission Decision on Heideloff Home

As expected, the neighbors of the 100-year-old Heideloff home filed an appeal regarding the Lakewood Planning Commission’s split decision that denied their request to make the home a historic landmark.

Per the city code, the applicant had 10 days to appeal. 

“This is the same board that will hear our appeal,” said Jeff Weber, a neighbor of the Heideloff home and advocate for saving it. “I just don’t know. We’re arguing with the same information.”

Last week, the Lakewood Planning Commission voted — in a split decision — that the Heideloff property should not be designated a historic property.

Neighbors told Lakewood Patch following the meeting that they planned to appeal the decision.

The home at 13474 Edgewater Drive is expected to be demolished to make way for a new $2 million lakefront home.

Members of the planning commission deliberated for about 45 minutes on Thursday, and with a new member encouraged to abstain, the vote ended with a 3-3 decision.

That effectively denied the motion to make the property “historic” under city ordinance.

At the center of the debate was the issue of private property rights versus historic preservation.

The neighbors, not the property owners, submitted the paperwork to make the mansion a historic landmark.

The proposal to the demolish the home at 13474 Edgewater Drive was slated to go before the city’s architectural board of review, however the item had been deferred prior to the meeting.

Mark Reinhold, the architect representing the family that owns the home, said that news of the appeal wasn’t a surprise.

“We assumed they’d appeal,” he said.