Lacey to decide on rezoning Gwinwood Retreat Center

Lacey is currently considering a request to rezone the Gwinwood Retreat Center from High-Density Residential to Open Space Institutional.

Planning Manager Ryan Andrews said a public hearing would be conducted in May on the rezoning of approximately 7.5 acres of land located at the southwest corner of Hicks Lake south and east of the intersection of Hicks Lake Road SE and 30th Avenue SE.

“It was a little bit difficult to find policies that apply to this because it is such a unique kind of facility in our community,” said Andrews during the Planning Commission meeting on April 18.

The retreat center, which is owned by a group of churches, is located on approximately 28 acres of land, with 7.5 acres currently zoned as High-Density Residential.

Andrews said the purpose of the request is to provide more consistency between the current and future uses of the property.  The existing High-Density residential zone requires residential uses at a density of 12 units per acre or greater. This would mean that any future development of the property would have to adhere to the requirements of the High-Density zone, which may not be suitable for the retreat center.

“The property is owned by a group of churches who wish to continue to utilize the property as a retreat center into the future,” the staff report read.

Andrews said this would also provide a transition to the environmentally sensitive areas surrounding Hicks Lake and a wetland that connects from Hicks Lake to Ruddell Road.

Kate Ayers, who filed the request on behalf of the ownership of the Gwinwood Retreat Center, said they don’t have plans to expand or build anything on the retreat center.

“It’s a non-profit retreat center and so it's open to anyone and we have all kinds of retreats there,” said Ayers. “The goal that we would like to do is maintain that it's rustic, most of our buildings were built in 1947, so we want to keep that rustic charm with it.”

“We want to preserve what we have there,” Ayers added.