Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
By Bob Adams. The Lakewood special election is now over with an overwhelming mandate to reject the new zoning and return to the previous ordinance. This warning is that all the politicians, activists and money defending the new zoning, are still in place. Are they just going to give up? In their own words, No. One way or another, they’ll keep trying to push higher density through…. Whether Lakewood likes it or not! The battle has just begun.
No one asked Lakewood residents if they wanted city-wide rezoning for urbanized high-density until April 7, 2026. On that day, Lakewood residents answered this question with a resounding “No.” The discussion lasted for years and culminated in an ongoing disconnect between residents and their elected representatives.
Is new zoning about making it easier for teachers and firefighters to pay for housing? Or is it about making teachers and firefighters pay for someone else? Is housing a commodity or a right? “Social housing” is public housing based on the belief that housing is a right. Information available shows that re-zoning is necessary to implement social housing. Social housing increases the tax burden on the missing middle class by imposing more taxes to fund subsidies. The missing middle is who Lakewood is hoping to convince to support the new zoning, although they may be the ones paying in the end.
Homeowners Associations (HOAs) mistakenly believe their rules will shield them from the new zoning. However, new zoning will override individual HOA rules
When a Lakewood resident bought a burned-out single-family house to rehabilitate it, he had no idea Lakewood would say no. The house had been vacant and neglected, allowing homeless to move in and cause a fire. The result is an unusable, dangerous eyesore. But those considerations were not as important to Lakewood as changing the property to high-density.
The Lakewood City Council Legislative Committee supports two state bills that would override Lakewood zoning code limits: HB26-1001 and HB26-1114. These state bills would further densify Lakewood regardless of the April 7 special election vote on new zoning densification, suggesting Committee Members are ignoring the will of the people.
No, not when you see pink slime coming out of your bath tub faucet. When shit backs up in your basement. Probably a plumber, who will tell you it’s $500 just to come out and have a look (since this will probably happen around 2:37 AM, on a Saturday night/morning). And, a few days later, once the shock of the damage wears off a little bit and anger starts settings in, you’ll probably get on the phone with your local water and sanitation district.
Guest post from Lenore Herskovitz
Although the City has touted their 2 year effort to produce and inform the public about the updated zoning code, there remains a large number of residents who are unaware of the upcoming special election challenging the zoning changes that were passed by the City Council at the end of last year. Ballots will be mailed out on March 16 but how many people will know why they are receiving one? Why did communication efforts fail? Did the City ever reach out to its residents and ask what would be the most effective way to notify them about policies, meetings, developments that would affect their lives? Perhaps that is something the City should consider doing moving forward.
Guest post from George Mugerian
Many residents understandably worry about development in their neighborhoods. We value the character of Lakewood. We value stability. But we also have to ask an important question: at what cost do we preserve the status quo?
Repost from savebelmarpark.com
The City of Lakewood, Colorado has approved a city-wide upzoning scheme largely in response to the influence of private equity developers and the ‘redress’ movement as described at their website redressmovement.org.
Redress posted an article titled: ‘A Step Closer to Ending Segregation Zoning in Lakewood, CO’
