Lakewood Informer

Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Lakewood Informer

Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Development

Decision on Campaign Finance Violation

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Development, Elections, TransparencyTagged , , , , ,

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.

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NextDoor Banned These 13 Posts!

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Development, TransparencyTagged , , , , , , ,

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.

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Referendum Petitions Continue Despite Hurdles

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Development, Elections, Entrenched Bureaucracy, TransparencyTagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

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Upzoning and Homelessness

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Development, HomelessTagged , , , ,

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.

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Emory Sold Amidst School Board Misinformation

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Community, Development, Entrenched Bureaucracy, Jeffco, TransparencyTagged , , , , ,

Jeffco Schools unanimously voted to sell Emory with barely a stall in the consent agenda on November 13, 2025. Statements made at that time and also at the November 5 study session indicate that Jeffco School Board and staff were heavily influenced by one-sided propaganda. No other ideas were considered and the propaganda was passed along without fully informing the public.

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Emory Questions Left Unanswered

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Community, Development, Entrenched Bureaucracy, Jeffco, TransparencyTagged , , , , , , , ,

The October 27, 2025 City Council meeting demonstrated how determined Council is to approve the Emory sale and Action Center purchase. That date was the first opportunity to approve the multiple transaction after the new zoning was passed – zoning which was required for the new operations. Despite having an injunction in place to stall the vote, Council did everything possible except the actual vote itself. They claimed everything was known, disclosed and proper. They laughed and smiled as if the injunction was a joke. However, despite their claims, below is a list of over 70 lingering questions.

The votes on Emory have been delayed from October 27 to October 29 and now until November 3 while Council desperately tries to vote as soon as possible even while the case is in court and under injunction. The difficulty lies in how to restore trust and enable a public process to answer questions that have been handled behind the scenes for two years.

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Finance Complaint Against Referendum Fizzles

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in DevelopmentTagged , , , , , , ,

Hard-working, grassroots volunteers working on a popular referendum were hit with a campaign finance complaint from a political insider. The complaint alleges that money spent on getting a referendum printed needs to be documented through a campaign finance committee. The City Clerk deemed otherwise.

The original complaint was filed on October 20, 2025 by Kip Kolkmeier, former Chair of Lakewood Planning Commission and a vocal supporter of the zoning overhaul. He said that money spent on things like the extremely popular yard signs should be documented for transparency. He gathered pictures of many yard signs as evidence of improper behavior. He did not document that signs were meant to influence City Council votes before the referendum. Kolkmeier no longer lives in Lakewood.

The City Clerk filed the required response on October 23. The determination reads (in part and emphasis added):

“The Clerk further notes that Petitioners previously reached out to his office desiring to register as an issue committee prior to circulating their referendum petitions for signature.

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Canstruction Food Event Subverted for Emory Purchase Propaganda

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Community, Development, Jeffco, TransparencyTagged , , , , , , ,

Lakewood’s shell game to buy Emory for the Action Center has shone a light on deals made before the public has a chance to weigh in. City leaders tell residents they can speak at the public comment period that was months away, and then they use the time before public comment to cement their plans away from public eye. More proof? An upcoming event taking place at Emory Elementary, hosted by Kaiser Permanente to benefit the Action Center. Chances are good that this was originally planned to be a celebration event for the Action Center that has now devolved into an event “with nonprofit partner.”

This is not just a regular Canstruction event. This is special for the Action Center at Emory.

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New Zoning Map

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in DevelopmentTagged , , ,

The map above shows the amendments made October 13 and published October 21, 2025. See page 5 of the amended ordinance. 

The time to collect signatures for a referendum closes  45 days from the publication date of the full ordinance. That means the fourth and final petition has until December 5 to gather enough signatures for this last ordinance to be repealed. 

Further details of that meeting can be found at https://lakewoodinformer.com/final-zoning-map-change-passed-but-not-released/

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