LAKEWOOD INFORMER

via Karen Morfitt, CBS Colorado “The City of Lakewood is one of the many Colorado communities where a debate about the future of short-term rentals has been taking place. As the popularity of such rentals grows, concerns surrounding the impact to the communities around them have also grown. The Lakewood City Council on Monday voted to allow licensed short-term rentals for primary residents of a home. They had previously considered that property owners who didn’t live at the residence would be allowed to do short-term rentals and that was written out of the proposed ordinance.” Read more…

The Board of Directors for West Metro Fire Rescue had three openings this year. Since there were only three candidates for three seats, the election was canceled and the results certified. The 2023-2027 Board Directors are: For Mike Williams and Bill Clayton, this will be a continuation of service. Amira Watters will be starting fresh but is familiar as the Executive Director of the Jefferson County Business Resource Center until it closed in 2021. The canceled election will save approximately $30,000 for a polling place election. The 2023 budget did not include a mail-in ballot election. Voter turnout was low in 2022 and the idea of changing to a mail-in ballot was raised again as recently as November with no change in plans.

via  Cathy Kentner on YourHub In a local and national housing crisis, Lakewood City Councilors voted to amend proposed legislation legalizing short-term rentals. As amended, the ordinance would allow investor corporations to buy housing for the sole purpose of providing short-term rentals. Read more…

The Colorado Attorney General’s office is asking the public for input on what this merger of Kroger (King Soopers)/ Safeway would mean for them. “My office is already hearing from shoppers, retail workers, farmers, food manufacturers, and others from around our state who are directly affected by the proposed merger.” Attorney General Phil Weiser, via The Denver Post Colorado residents can weigh in with opinions at forums or through a survey at https://qrco.de/grocerymerger Read more at: Weiser: The Kroger/Albertsons grocery merger deserves a thorough anti-trust legal review

Guest post from Lenore Herskovitz Lakewoodspeaks is touted by city staff and its platform provider Peoplespeak as a place to make hearings “Inclusive. Transparent. Easy. Convenient.” Theoretically, this sounds very impressive but in reality, this costly site has been plagued with numerous problems. Between 5/10/2018 and 12/21/2022 the City paid Peoplespeak a total of $270,800.00. According to the financial ledger we are presently spending $4,400 a month for this service. Unfortunately, there are many problems that have persisted over the years including which city website to use to locate information, how to successfully phone in a comment, how to post comments on Lakewoodspeaks, what are the specific rules pertaining to public comments, and the technical difficulties when viewing meetings from home. Recently there has been an issue when completing submission of a written comment. The CAPTCHA function which verifies valid users indicates “failed” but when you press submit it goes through anyway. The city clerk and provider are aware of the problem, but it has remained unresolved for weeks now. On February 13th, the City posted a comment by an individual claiming to be “Terrified in Ward 1”, clearly a violation of the rule prohibiting using a false identity. The commenter began with a criticism of the way a city councilor had handled an interaction with an attendee at the February Ward 1 meeting then veered off topic into a personal attack on the councilor and a planning commissioner referring to them as “dangerous ghouls”. Through an open records search,...

A legal conundrum underlying the Short-Term Rental (STR) discussion is whether STRs (like Airbnb and Vrbo) are home businesses or not. The answer is: The issue was raised in the February 13 City Council meeting. Per Lakewood Zoning Ordinance Article 14, the definition of a home business is “any occupation of a service character which is clearly accessory to the main use of the premises as a dwelling unit, and which does not change the residential character.” Citing the zoning definition, City of Lakewood attorneys advise that STRs are not a home business at all, because the business in question is dwelling. Business: “the activity of making, buying, or selling of goods or providing services in exchange for money.” Britannica.com The convoluted argument is summed up in the proposed, “Business and License Regulations for Short-Term Rentals” wherein it states: “due to the residential nature associated with operating an STR, the use of a primary residence as a Short-Term Rental shall not be considered either a major or minor home business as those terms are defined within the Zoning Ordinance.” So in the business regulations for STRs, it states STRs are not a home business. Regardless of what you may think of that legal argument, it has been rendered moot by the recently passed amendment to allow short-term rentals in a non-owner-occupied residence (you don’t live there, you just rent it out). Reside: to dwell permanently or for a considerable time dictionary.com Per zoning ordinance definitions, the main difference between a...