City Planning Commission recommends permanent industrial zoning for Westwin site

The southwest Lawton property that will house Westwin Element’s pilot plant has been recommended for permanent industrial zoning.

Members of the City Planning Commission recommended I-4 Heavy Industrial District zoning for 160 acres of now-vacant land at 10925 Bishop Road. The tract is located at the corner of Bishop Road and Southwest 112th Street, starting on the north side of Bishop Road and stretching to the north. I-4 is the least restrictive industrial zoning category, whose uses range from scrap and salvage yards, to petroleum refineries and commercial feed livestock pens, to explosives and acid manufacturing.

Tyler Pobiedzinski, a member of the City of Lawton Planning Department, said the tract was annexed into the Lawton city limits in December 2022 and given a temporary I-4 zoning at that time. The commission’s recommendation is to make that zoning classification permanent, which is the recommendation that will be forwarded to the City Council for final action.

The request comes from the property’s legal owners, the Comanche County Industrial Development Authority. CCIDA actually owns 480 acres in that area, but this particular tract is being designated for the pilot plant that Westwin Elements has proposed building as the forerunner of a full-sized cobalt/nickel refinery. CCIDA will be deeding that property to Westwin Elements, under an economic incentive package by local entities that also is designating $3 million in local funding toward what Westwin said will be a $10.6 million pilot plant project.

The site plan shows two buildings on the site, both assigned the 10925 Bishop Road address, Podiedzinski said. The plan shows a loading dock and support building, with parking for what Westwin has said would be a pilot plant employing 85 people. The access points for the plant property is Bishop Road, according to the site plan.

Westwin has a work trailer and some equipment on the site, but construction has not yet begin, local officials said.