Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Defending the referendum requires legal counsel. Regular residents cannot navigate full legal proceedings alone. Although there can be no issue committee at this time, and therefore no campaign donations, an attorney is stepping forward to assist.
If you wish to support the effort, donations can be sent directly to:
From Ramey Johnson’s newsletter
When I served on the Lakewood City Council (2010–2020, Ward 1), we voted on changes to the zoning ordinance in 2012. That process required months of resident input and several citizen committee meetings before it ever reached the council for a final vote. It ultimately passed 8–3. I voted no.
Under normal procedure, city staff—typically the Director of Planning or Public Works—presents updated versions of ordinances to the council for consideration.
However, council is not made aware when new language is inserted into ordinance drafts that shifts additional authority to the Director of Planning (currently Travis Parker).
Former Lakewood resident Kip Kolkmeier has filed complaints about the referendum signatures on behalf of Joshua Comden and Reverend Ben Hensley. The complaint alleges very technical violations about the referendum petitions while also complaining about the hearing itself. Without documented procedures, the hearing officer is free to use their experience to guide a successful, neutral process. Kolkmeier disagrees and dictated how the complaint process should be handled, including the hearing and even who is allowed to talk to the City Clerk.
The eight bullet points listed in Kolkmeier’s hearing complaint are not suggestions for future hearings. They are demands to be implemented immediately. He uses words such as “shall”, “is” and “must.” This is a complete departure from suggested advice and does not acknowledge various alternatives of holding public hearings.
The independent hearing officer made a determination absolving Lakewood and the referendum petitioners in the campaign finance complaint. The complaint was registered by Kip Kolkmeier against the zoning referendum petitioners. The findings say that there is room for interpretation how to safeguard a democratic government.
All the information on this is included at this link to the independent hearing officer’s decision. The document is 197 pages in length but includes the original complaint, the City Clerk’s response to the Complaint, the 8 page hearing officer decision and the full transcript of the hearing.
Struggling social media site Nextdoor published and raved about these 13 recent posts on their site. They described the author as a ‘trusted neighbor’ who was ‘making a difference in the neighborhood’! They also repeatedly encouraged the author to keep posting and asked ‘What will you share next?’ and displayed a large button to create a new post.
Then suddenly, the exact same posts that neighbors were ‘really interested in’ were banned with no notice and no warning as being SPAM even though Nextdoor had repeatedly encouraged the author to post such content on their site.
Lakewood residents questioned why an offender was out on parole after a burgerly turned homocide in Lakewood on December 6, 2025. In fact, more residents commented on parole than offered congratulations to police for a speedy resolution. Comments such as “Another parolee that never should have been released!!” were common to Lakewood Police Department’s (LPD) Facebook post on the issue.
The City of Lakewood has effectively pulled the rug out from under the people by imposing impossible deadlines on the citizen referendum process, making meaningful participation nearly impossible.
There are several updates to the zoning referendum, including sufficiency, new legal challenges and the city staff writing new campaign finance law.
Zoning petition #3 has passed the count for initial sufficiency. Petition #3 was to repeal Ordinance O-2025-29, replacing Article 3 of the zoning code concerning a lot of single-family zoning provisions. Petition #3 will join 1 and 2 in waiting for final approval before going to City Council.
Zoning Petition #4 has been submitted to Lakewood. That completes the signature gathering process to repeal all parts of the newly passed zoning code.
There are rumors that all petition signatures have been challenged and will require a new hearing and costly legal defense. Details pending.
Campaign Finance Challenge
Recent meetings from the Jeffco School Board Partnership for Fiscal Sustainability discussed raising the mill levy and how to market that decision to residents. This demonstrates yet another government body shaping propaganda to support a future ballot measure. Jeffco Schools, like Lakewood and Jefferson County, hired a consultant to help with a mill levy question. At this point, a community survey has asked about revenue generation. Budget presentations show data about raising the levy. Budget reductions are discussed as a part of the solution.
The point of these meetings was to “prepare and involve the community to support future revenue generation,” as seen in the slide below. This is using district resources to get resident support in what will likely be a ballot question on the mill levy. School communications are also a tool to discuss any upcoming cuts or revenue changes.
From savebelmarpark.com
Homelessness, and especially people who are unhoused, is a growing concern in the US. Upzoning advocates have pointed to the high cost of housing as a key driver of homelessness and that upzoning would make housing more affordable and therefore would reduce the number of unhoused persons in a city.
‘Upzoning’ is a city planning strategy to increase housing density and therefore housing supply via related zoning changes to support the strategy.
