Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Op-Ed: Lakewood’s zoning updates are a necessary step to protect the future of our community
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?
The cost is increasingly clear. Homeownership in Lakewood has become out of reach for many families. Not everyone had the opportunity to purchase a home five or ten years ago, when prices were lower and mortgage rates were near historic lows. Today, rates remain elevated and prices continue to rise. While we cannot control national interest rates, we can influence one key factor locally: housing supply.
When supply remains constrained in a growing city, prices rise. Increasing supply is not a radical idea — it is basic economics.
Some critics worry that zoning changes primarily benefit developers or accelerate wealth inequality. That concern deserves respect. However, thoughtful zoning updates are not deregulation — it is structured reform. The code updates maintain oversight and design standards while allowing more flexible use of land. It enables private capital to expand housing opportunities under clear city guidelines and guardrails. That balance is how cities evolve responsibly.
Two elements of the proposal are especially important: the elimination of outdated minimum lot size requirements and the introduction of reasonable square footage caps. Together, these provisions encourage “missing middle” housing — duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes — at a scale that fits within existing neighborhoods. Smaller maximum unit sizes naturally result in more attainable price points.
Consider a real example. On a recently purchased property, renovating the existing single-family home would require selling it for approximately $575,000 to cover acquisition, renovation, and carrying costs. That outcome produces one higher-priced home.
Under the proposed R-L-C zoning, the same lot could support up to four units, each approximately 1,250 square feet. These homes could be offered around $450,000 per unit — creating four ownership opportunities at a lower individual price point than the single renovated home. The result is not luxury expansion; it is affordable homes that broaden access to ownership.
The zoning updates do not encourage bulldozing of perfectly good houses because that would not be financially viable. Instead it provides flexibility to local “mom and pop” developers like myself to deliver more value to the community. These projects will almost always be built for resale since that is the more economically viability outcome for an investor. This zoning allows local small businesses to increase middle home supply which is a much needed segment in our current real estate market.
Lakewood will continue to grow. The question is whether we plan for that growth thoughtfully or allow rising prices to push families farther away. Teachers, small business owners, young professionals, and first-time buyers deserve a path to homeownership in the community they serve. Cities like Frisco, Vail and Steamboat have failed to make these zoning changes fast enough and now they have an affordability crisis that has no simple solution.
This zoning update does not eliminate neighborhood character. It allows gradual, context-sensitive evolution. It gives Lakewood the tools to expand opportunity without expanding its footprint.
Let’s work smarter, not harder.
5 thoughts on “Op-Ed: Lakewood’s zoning updates are a necessary step to protect the future of our community”
Mr. Mugerian thinks new homes priced at $450,000 per unit in Lakewood, CO after upzoning the entire city to accomplish his vision are affordable! Sadly, Mr. Mugerian’s analysis does not make sense. According to census.gov, the median annual household income in Lakewood is $89,792. According to https://mortgage-calculator.net/i-make-89000-a-year-how-much-house-can-i-afford, that income level can only afford a home price of $319,615 or less. Therefore, the homes Mr. Mugerain cites as ‘affordable’ are simply not affordable in the context of the affordable housing policy debate. These facts clearly debunk Mr. Mugerian’s contention that $450,00 is affordable in Lakewood, Colorado. Bottom Line – upzoning the entire city in order to build even more of the expensive housing that most people cannot afford does not serve the voters or residents of the City of Lakewood, Colorado in 2026. Please Vote YES to repeal upzoning on the four ballot issues when you receive your mail-in ballot in March 2026.
“Homeownership in Lakewood has become out of reach for many families.”
Well yeah, probably. But Mr. Mugerian starts with a false premise. Lakewood being out of reach for many families would be a problem only if Lakewood were an isolated metropolis. It’s not. No one who works in Lakewood has to live in Lakewood, or vice versa. There’s Wheatridge, Arvada, Applewood, Golden, Edgewater and, of course, Denver – all within reasonable commuting distance. People who prefer an urban environment or are at a stage in their life where they can only afford cramped urban living can live in Denver, or in any of the other surrounding cities. Many Lakewood residents work in Denver but choose to live in Lakewood. Why? Because we prefer a less-crowded suburban lifestyle, with less crime, less traffic, and more space between homes. This City Council apparently thinks Lakewood should be just like Denver. I’d rather live in a Lakewood that continues to provide a lifestyle than Denver cannot. Vote YES, to keep Lakewood suburban, and to prevent this rogue City Council from Denver-izing our hometown!
When we moved from our small lot in Denver to a considerably larger property in Kawanee Gardens, Bob Murphy was the Mayor of Lakewood. At a neighborhood meeting, he mentioned that in his time on City Council, he followed the advice of a previous mayor who advised new members of Council to take care of the people in their Wards. For most of the current City Council, their mission seems to be ignoring those residents and replacing them with people they’d prefer to represent. While giving lip service to Preserving the Character of Existing Neighborhoods, their social engineering will, over time, turn eclectic neighborhoods such as mine into a developer’s dream of $450,000 houses crowded onto the smallest lots that zoning will permit. The neighborhood will still be expensive, but they’ll be more people crammed into it.
There have been a lot of changes in Lakewood in my lifetime (while I didn’t grow up in Lakewood, I always enjoyed visiting family members who did live in Lakewood). I moved to Lakewood as quickly as I possibly could. These zoning changes will have a catastrophic effect on life as we know it. I have watched the news noticing that our representatives are pushing bills to densify around transit corridors taking away local municipalities rights to have a say in what happens in their communities. These changes will have a lasting irreparable impact on those families living around those corridors but hey our current council is full steam ahead regarding density development. I would like to see Lakewood city council actually represent their constituents rather than the private equity “shitbox” developers that they are currently representing. as far as Mr. Mugerian statements above are concerned they are misaligned. 450,000 is far too much for any multi family unit in the City of Lakewood. “affordable” is an overused term building affordable housing is usually at the developers discretion and the city of Lakewood does a piss poor job of requiring developers to set aside even a small percentage of their developments for affordable housing. The build, build, build mentality only benefits developers outside of Lakewood and our current city council. Remember to vote “YES” on April 7, 2026
Let’s face it, the new zoning is a cities dream of covering for their terrible budget management of giving away productive citizens hard earned dollars to unproductive non-citizens they are importing. Turning current single family lots into multi-family lots is a windfall in new property taxes as that same lot goes from one property tax unit to multi-property tax units and voila, bad money management turns into a goldmine. If the new zoning favored Lakewood citizens why would council try to pass it behind closed doors? Vote YES on all four ballot measures if you want to protect your Lakewood lifestyle and your children’s future.
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