The city of Lakewood is considering approving permits that would allow a landowner to cut down an oak tree that is at least 900 years old to make way for a semi-truck parking lot.
Birds could be heard chirping in the tree’s enormous branches on Wednesday afternoon when The News Tribune visited the site in the industrial Woodbrook neighborhood.
The 3.8-acre vacant lot was riddled with stumps. Some time between 2023 and 2024 the property owner razed 70 trees at 7319 146th St. SW without authorization, public records show. The city of Lakewood fined the owner $1,130,724 for the “malicious cutting,” but that fine was reduced to $346,920, according to a letter dated Jan. 5.
According to a Jan. 16 city memo, the Emerson Lake Business Park has proposed extending a truck-and-trailer parking lot in association with an existing lot in the Industrial Business Park. Applicant Jason Hubbell and landowner Jane Yin, as well as representatives with Emerson Lake Business Park, did not respond to The News Tribune’s requests for comment. Tax records indicate the property has an assessed value of $1.6 million as of 2025…