sustainability Archives - Lakewood Informer

Lakewood Demands Fee for Impossible Sustainability Goals

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on February 9, 2025. Leave a Comment

Lakewood requires such high sustainability standards that they are almost impossible for large developments to meet. The standards are meant to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. For those developments, Lakewood accepts a fee in lieu of sustainability amenities. Lakewood is currently arguing that parkland dedication is illegal or amoral because it asks too much from developers. But Lakewood makes the same sort of demands to further its sustainability agenda. In both cases, the desire is to have development offset the environmental cost of development. The question is at what point is there so much development that the city says money is an acceptable substitute for direct environmental offsets.

Note that these city mandates will continue despite any possible changes to federal funding for climate change initiatives.

Achievable Goals or Ideology

Lowering emissions is expensive so most people have not done it or have only done it by using rebates and subsidies. Achieving net zero emissions is even more expensive and is sometimes not achievable. For example, the city of Lakewood admits its new maintenance facility will not meet LEED standards let alone be net zero. Lakewood has set its own standards and requires that new buildings meet those standards by earning sustainability points.

“net zero standards require reducing emissions to more than 90% and then only offsetting [with purchased carbon credits] the remaining 10% or less to fall in line with 1.5 °C targets.” –Wikipedia

For large developments, the city admits it is almost impossible to achieve enough points. Therefore, developers are forced to pay a fee so that Lakewood can fund other sustainability projects. This is similar to other carbon credit purchasing schemes but in this case, it is authorized, administered, and required by Lakewood. There is currently no discussion that Lakewood will require credits or fees from existing residents. Lakewood City Council was scheduled to discuss new ways to generate revenue, as well as how to spend the revenue generated from existing fees, at the February planning retreat. The planning retreat has historically been an in-person only meeting where staff takes direction from Council on items that do not require an official vote. No recording is available online for review.

“For some [developments] that the [sustainability] targets are just too high to meet, they pitch in so that the city can spend that money to further achieve our goals.” Travis Parker, Director of Sustainability and Community Development during staff sustainability update (min 1:17:52).

Increasing UNAFFORDABLE Housing

Since 2019 Lakewood has demanded buildings meet climate sustainability goals. This was estimated to add 2-3% to building costs but actual costs have not been collected or analyzed. Building costs are passed on to the consumer, which makes Lakewood even more expensive to live and work in than in the surrounding areas.

The additional sustainability measures will add 1-10% to building costs for things like EV charging stations. Would you like all new apartments to have a few charging stations at an increased overall cost for everyone or would you like some buildings to not have those amenities at a lower cost?

Lakewood’s demands have resulted in a reduction in emissions to meet a target of 20% less than 2007 levels. With the new demands of 2022, some large construction projects cannot meet Lakewood’s demands, resulting in the project paying a fee to Lakewood that will be used for other climate goals. Lakewood city staff acknowledged that it was almost impossible for large projects to meet demands, making the fee-in-lieu necessary.

Money Making Machine

Lakewood has already generated $221,000 from various sustainability fees. They anticipate generating over $250,000 per year on these fees. Lakewood made over $600,000 on the statewide plastic bag mandate. One could say Lakewood is getting into the business of selling emission offsets.

For more information on what Lakewood’s sustainability measures have achieved so far, watch the full video update at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYbpkr1Gm24&t=150s

Greenhouse Gas Emissions over Time — https://lakewoodspeaks.org/items/3959

Consequences

The extra expense of building in Lakewood limits the possibility of new businesses coming into Lakewood. Even sustainability businesses, whose goals align with Lakewood’s, find it difficult to make a profit when required to meet high sustainability standards. Councilor Rein specifically remarked that he would like Lakewood to attract new businesses that would develop sustainability technologies. At the same time, businesses nationwide are rethinking their sustainability goals amidst high demands such as Lakewood’s.

The enhanced development fee was first approved in 2019. Now the city is asking for more and some projects are not even possible to achieve what Lakewood wants. All projects must meet a base emission efficiency level. After meeting that base level, projects are eligible to pay a fee because even Lakewood staff admit it is not possible to achieve what they are asking for.

“Fee-in-lieu is for those super large projects that have really large point totals that may not even be able to find enough points in the [standards] list to meet their point total, they still have to achieve at least 50 [base level efficiency] and they can achieve the rest as well or they can pay a fee in lieu for some of those higher points.” – Travis Parker, sustainability update (min 1:34), emphasis added

What do the fees go towards? They could go towards every basic city service besides police. Per Councilor Sophia Mayott-Guerrero, these fees could be used for sidewalks, bike lanes, lighting, park maintenance, road maintenance, climate impact and water impact. Councilors asked about tree preservation and housing. Public art was part of the original goal. Tree canopy health. Food access. Household wages. Even subscriptions to city communications and trips to the rec center count towards “sustainability goals”. Other people have to fight to earn business advantages like that.

The dates below are from the staff presentation, detailing future meetings where Lakewood will be implementing more robust sustainability measures for Lakewood.

Upcoming dates Lakewood will be implementing more sustainability measures

How Expensive is Lakewood Electrification?

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on February 4, 2025.

Lakewood has a sustainability agenda to push electrification in order to decrease fossil fuel emissions. Electrification means changing your gas appliance to an electric one. Xcel is asking for an extra $5 billion to upgrade infrastructure that is needed for this change. Xcel will fund this by charging all customers more on top of an ever-increasing bill. A recent podcast from PowerGab called “Heat Pump Surprise”, pondered whether our elected officials know the total cost of their agenda. This was a good question so LakewoodInformer news asked Lakewood City Council if they knew the total cost for Lakewood residents. We got two responses and zero answers. All Lakewood residents are paying for electrification efforts through these additional fees. It’s not just the cost of a new appliance.

“Xcel Energy, seeking to meet an increasing demand for electric vehicles, rooftop solar arrays and heat pumps and general growth in electricity use, is proposing a $5 billion plan to improve the links between the grid and homes and businesses.” – Colorado Sun

The possible new fee is a result of the Fenberg Rider, passed by Colorado legislators in 2024. This fee will improve only one leg of an overloaded distribution center. Electrification is one of, if not the most, expensive ways to decarbonize energy.

“Whether or not you actually convert to a heat pump you’re still gonna pay for this…. It’s even more perverse than that because what the PUC actually did was tack on a fee for existing natural gas customers to pay to subsidize folks to switch” – PowerGab

Does Lakewood know how much it will cost to switch to electric appliances?

Only two out of eleven Council Members responded to an emailed question. Neither answer included total costs. All Councilors affirmed their commitment to sustainability as a worthy goal. Sustainability, including any electrification, is a city priority.

Councilor Sophia Mayott-Guerrero provided a swift response, saying she previously worked in climate justice and clean energy policy. She points out the “current rate structures that Xcel uses is actually very beneficial to most customers as more electric appliances come online. As you know, heat pumps are most used in the night, and are also statistically more likely in homes where at least one person is home in the day, meaning continued use (on average) in the none-surge pricing hours. This all results in something often referred to as “flattening the curve”.

Flattening the curve does not stop the overall line increasing. The experts at PowerGab estimate (min 12) that the total necessary infrastructure upgrades total about to $695 billion for the necessary 82 gigawatts of power. The question remains, are climate justice warriors aware of the total cost?

Councilor Paula Nystrom says, “The concern is air quality, not just the cost… we [Lakewood] have deadlines to meet.” She says that it’s important to think of the global problem and how people suffer with air quality while trying to enjoy the summer outside. She did not know of any specific fees or sources of funding, but did say that there was enough tax credits and grants that residents wanting to switch to electric appliances could do so at about half the sticker cost.

Is $695 billion in new statewide spending possible? And is it worth it to achieve decarbonization goals?

Lakewood Council, Sustainability Committee and staff have been running a recurring false narrative that electrification is cheap because it uses “free money” like tax credits or subsidies when the reality is that everyone pays to make this money available. Lakewood will require that new buildings have electric heat pumps versus gas furnaces, relying on the fact that residents will believe the free money narrative over the total cost narrative. This change is likely to happen in spring of 2025.

Lakewood will also spend more on city buildings to meet these sustainability goals through increased taxpayer funding.

“This means you writing a check with a comma in it to pay your utility bill every single month. So $1,000 plus monthly utility bills.” – Amy Cooke, PowerGab

This informal survey of Lakewood City Council seems to prove PowerGab’s theory that legislators championing electrification have not added all these numbers up.

“This is a regressive tax. If you want to hurt poor people, you drive up the cost of keeping lights on… Affordable housing won’t matter. We are literally bankrupting the state.” Amy Cooke, PowerGab, min 7:30 mark)

“We need to account for the fact that increased load does have a cost,” Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat and cosponsor of the bill, told a Senate Finance Committee hearing. “There are investments that need to be made.” – Colorado Sun

The Council responses also shows that only two out of eleven Councilors were willing to explain their beliefs in the face of a competing cost narrative. All beliefs are worth consideration, and their answers showed true respect for all their constituents. Thank you!

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIExE1OlL-4

Terumo BCT draft permit modification open for public comment until Feb. 6, 2024

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on January 7, 2025.

via reader notification – thank you!

The CDPHE Air Pollution Control Division is actively working with Terumo BCT to further reduce ethylene oxide emissions. A draft permit modification for Terumo BCT to install and operate additional devices to reduce ethylene oxide emissions from the facility is now available on the division’s website.

Terumo BCT currently uses a device known as a “dry scrubber” to reduce ethylene oxide emissions. The proposed permit modifications would allow Terumo to use a new control device called a “thermal catalytic oxidizer abatement plant” as its primary emissions control. The dry scrubber would then serve as a backup control.

The draft permit is open for public comment from January 7, 2025 – February 6, 2025. Division staff will review all public comments received and use relevant comments to inform the permit updates. The permit is available on the division’s air permit public notices web page. That web page has details and tips for submitting effective public comments.

Terumo BCT has indicated new control equipment could be fully operational in early 2025. Once the equipment is fully operational, Terumo BCT would have to test ethylene oxide emissions to ensure it meets the permit requirements. These tests would use U.S. EPA-approved methods to evaluate emissions reductions.

More air quality monitoring around Terumo BCT

The air division conducts its own air quality monitoring around Terumo BCT and will continue doing so after the new equipment is in place. The division will make this data available to the public on its website once it has undergone quality control assurance and review. The division will use this information to inform its ongoing work protecting clean air in Colorado’s communities.

New regulations and proposals that apply to Terumo’s emissions of ethylene oxide

March 2024 federal ethylene oxide rule

Terumo BCT must comply with the U.S. EPA’s new rule to reduce harmful ethylene oxide emissions and exposures. This new rule applies to four commercial medical sterilization facilities in Colorado, including Terumo BCT. The federal rule is expected to reduce ethylene oxide emissions at these facilities. Learn more on EPA’s website.

Ethylene oxide proposed as priority air toxic in Colorado

From January 16-17, 2025, the Air Quality Control Commission will hold a rulemaking hearing on a proposal to identify up to five priority air toxics in Colorado. Ethylene oxide is one of the five priority air toxics proposed for commission consideration. After the commission determines priority air toxics, Colorado will then work to establish health-based standards for each one through a separate rulemaking later in 2025.

This is one of the requirements under Colorado’s Public Protections from Toxic Air Contaminants Act. The division developed the draft proposal with input from monitoring and modeling data, the public, and a technical working group of scientific experts. The division may propose adding more priority air toxics in the future.

You can register to offer a verbal public comment or listen to the January 2025 rulemaking hearing. A registration link to listen or offer verbal public comment is available on the commission’s website.

Contact us

To submit permit comments, visit the division’s air permit public notices web page.

You may contact us anytime at the following email addresses:

[email protected] for air quality questions or comments.
[email protected] for health questions or comments.

Radiant Painting and Lighting
Phone: +1 (720) 940-3887
Email: karen@paintwithradiant.com
Web: https://paintwithradiant.com/

Lakewood Makes Bank on Plastic Bag Fees

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on December 16, 2024.

In less than a year, the $0.10 fee from shopping bag sales have generated $692,000 for Lakewood so far. That revenue was only 60% of the $0.10 fee. The remaining 40% stayed with the stores, which means local stores made about $461,333 from plastic bags fees. Lakewood revenue from bag fees will be used to support multiple sustainability projects in 2025, including an Organic Waste Pilot Program as well as a project focused on Multi-Family Waste Diversion Resources.

The plastic bag fee is a state law even though “plastic bags result in about half the emissions of alternative bags,” a fact known since at least 2014.

@John Stossel
Plastic recycling is a “dead-end street."
That quote…unbelievably…is from
@Greenpeace.
In my new video, we debunk the recycling religion.

The Organic Waste Pilot Program would include a variety of test programs aimed at increasing participation in both backyard composting and community collection hub programs for food waste.

The Multi-Family Waste Diversion project would develop toolkits, educational resources, and provide technical expertise to property owners and managers of multi-family buildings with the goal of supporting the establishment of recycling and potentially organic waste collection service.

These seem to be expensive education projects but new projects could still develop. Lakewood anticipates generating over $250,000 every year from this fee.

From Lakewood Study Session on Sustainability, November 18, 2024

City Council Wants More Done To Fight Climate Change

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on December 16, 2024.

Most of Lakewood City Council is concerned that Lakewood will not reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Although Lakewood has been increasing climate change regulations and spending for over a decade, it’s not enough and the city will be increasing both spending and regulation in 2025.

Are these goals achievable and which programs are most effective?

Lakewood is still developing its model to predict emission reduction. It is almost impossible to attribute which programs result in the best emission reductions because every result is intertwined not only with other programs but with the existing climate, which by definition is changing.

Lakewood has more sustainability goals than surrounding cities. Lakewood is named “one of 119 cities across the globe providing leadership in environmental action and transparency by the Carbon Disclosure Project”, showing Lakewood is more aggressive than most of the world. The city is currently working on a new climate vulnerability study, a new sustainability plan, updating zoning codes and building codes for increased required sustainability measures. Votes on the new codes are scheduled for spring.

Full-time sustainability staff has increased from 2, in 2014, to 12 in 2025. Dozens more part-time staff are employed throughout all city departments. According to Sustainability and Community Development Director, Travis Parker, about 30% of the new comprehensive plan focuses on sustainability.

Despite already doing so much, every Council Member present asked about doing more during the November 18, 2024 Study Session on Sustainability.

The key to City Council goals was to secure more funding. Council Member Jeslin Shahrezaei points out that cities like Fort Collins and Denver have a dedicated sustainability budget. She says grants for one project at a time is not a long-term solution. She believes residents want more funding to go to sustainability efforts. According to Shahrezaei, Lakewood played a pivotal role in securing a regional $200M grant because it has the tracking numbers for emissions and workforce.

Council will talk about new revenue generating possibilities at the annual retreat workshop.

Council Member Paula Nystrom asked for a new program and budget for residential greenhouse gas emission reduction for the upcoming revised budget.

Lakewood has not asked residents to support the climate change fight directly with their pocketbooks before. Staffing initiatives often start as “free money” from other sources and continued past the grant’s expiration date without a public discussion. More direct taxing and funding suggestions represent a significant new direction for Lakewood, especially on the scale of new programs at millions of dollars a year.

Councilor Glenda Sinks was concerned about being able to track sustainability spending through the budget. This was a good question without a good answer. According to Director Parker, Lakewood is not showing much in the budget yet because it is in the “enviable place of having more money available than we have plans for yet but that won’t be the case for long.” There was no answer as to where the money is shown in the current budget.

Councilor Roger Low echoes the need for clear spending and goal tracking in the budget. He would like to see more progress on SolarApp implementation.

Council Member Sophia Mayott-Guerrero floated a new idea to expand the greenhouse gas fee and have a larger spending pool to be used for things like sidewalks, bike lanes, lighting, park maintenance, road maintenance, climate impact and water impact. All of these could be viewed as “sustainability” measures.

Several Councilors, including Cruz and Shahrezaei, were interested in making sure that money was distributed equitably. They want to make sure that low-income areas were first in line for assistance, as was intended through the federal program that Lakewood receives funding from.

Councilor Jacob LaBure would like to be a national leader in sustainability efforts. LaBure points out that much of the federal money may be lessening under a new administration. As a result, he suggests Lakewood do more internally. For instance, Lakewood may require garbage and waste contractors to only use contractors with EV vehicles. Mayor Strom echoes the benefits of buying or contracting EV vehicles companies. Councilor LaBure would like to mandate new buildings, especially city buildings, be LEED certified through the building code. Director Travis Parker says some buildings could already meet LEED standards but do not want to pay the quarter million dollars to get certified.

Councilor Rein would like to see more specificity in the sustainability plan in order to get Lakewood on track for less emissions. He is interested in the city getting a LEED certification. City staff say big new projects under city control, like the new maintenance facility, may not be able to get LEED certification but will be sustainable on some level. Rein asked staff if the current budget has enough funding to improve sidewalk connectivity and make the city more walkable in order to cut down on vehicle traffic. Staff answered there was not enough funding.

Upcoming dates on sustainability
Feb 1, Mar 3 Mar 17, Apr 28, May 12, Jun 9 — From Lakewood update on sustainability

No More Gas Fireplaces?

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on October 27, 2024.

Lakewood City Council Member Paula Nystrom and Jacob LaBure proposed banning gas fireplaces on October, 14, 2024. On the heels of two other proposals that night for increased sustainability measures, most Councilors urged for a deeper discussion of the topic at the council’s annual retreat. Councilor Rebekah Stewart was the only other “yes” vote on moving this ban forward. This discussion will be included again later in the zoning update tentatively scheduled for May, 2025

The city is already moving forward to fund electrification efforts, which include eliminating all gas appliances. As recommended by Lakewood’s Sustainability Committee, funding incentives would be provided for residents to voluntarily change their appliances, after which, mandates would be needed for everyone else. When asked whether Council is advocating for electrification, then-Councilor Wendi Strom responded that Lakewood was just in the research phase.

According to the 2025 budget Q&A, Lakewood has moved beyond research without a Council policy vote and without further public discussion. Lakewood will be a part of five different programs to remove gas appliances in residential homes starting in 2025.

The theory is that since grants are “free money”, no one could object and furthermore, the city’s Sustainability Plan calls for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions 20% below 2007 levels by 2025 so no public discussion is needed. As Councilors LaBure and Nystrom point out, Lakewood is behind its goals. To assist in reaching those goals, all gas appliances will have to be replaced with arguably more expensive and less efficient electric appliances.

The goal does not address how to power the new electric infrastructure given the grid cannot handle the current load. It also does not address the legal problems caused by similar demands to the commercial property world. There is no word on how to reverse or stop Lakewood’s policy of encouraging high-density growth, which led to more people with more gas appliances over the past decade.

Funding programs according to budget Q&A:

Starting in 2025, Lakewood will use funds through DRCOG from the EPA Climate Pollution Reduction grant. Lakewood will “offer financial incentives for residential efficiency and electrification projects (heat pumps, electric cooktops, etc) and invests in more local workforce development. The program focuses on supporting low-income and disadvantaged communities and will reduce 149 million tons of carbon emissions by 2050. The funds have to be spent over the next 5 years.”
Xcel Energy’s Clean Heat Plan (still needs to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission) will direct $440 million to electrification and efficiency measures and reduce natural gas use. Designed to support hundreds of thousands of households starting in 2025.
Colorado Energy Office is expected to launch a $140 million Home Energy Rebate Program for low to moderate income households and building owners in early 2025 from the Department of Energy. This is part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The funds will be used for home electrification and appliance rebates and efficiency measures.
Colorado Energy Office received $20 million to support efficiency and electrification improvements for buildings larger than 50,000 SF. Expected in 2025.
Xcel also has a Transportation Electrification Plan and Demand-side Management plan that is expected to be adopted later this year and offer financial incentives starting in 2025. Total funding for that program is unknown at this time.

Scorecard: Banning Gas Fireplaces

Strom: Nay

Shahrezaei: Nay

Sinks: Nay

Mayott-Guerrero: Nay

Cruz: Nay

Stewart: Aye

Low: Nay

Olver: Nay

Rein: Nay

LaBure: Absent

Nystrom: Aye

One-Sided Presentation To Limit Lakewood Gas Stations

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on August 11, 2024.

The Planning Commission presented evidence of health and environmental harm from fueling stations and car washes. No evidence from the other side was presented. With only one side represented, it is no surprise that the Planning Commission unanimously recommended to restrict gas stations in Lakewood, while at the same time increasing electric charging stations. Council comments generally reinforced that view and city staff will be drafting new ordinances to implement these recommendations.

The Planning Commission discussed the issue at three public meetings. In the presentation, this sounds like all sides were heard. However, inviting comment or being open to comment is not the same as researching or actually hearing the other side.

No industry representatives made comment or presentation and no information was brought forth to represent their side. Only one person made comment on LakewoodSpeaks to support the market economy. This led to a one-sided, forgone set of recommendations from the Planning Commission.

An example from the presentation of what the Planning Commission found to be a compelling argument:

“Within 10 years 80% of all fueling stations will be unprofitable (due to the switch to EV cars), leaving stranded assets that will need environmental remediation” – cited by Planning Commissioner Kip Kolkmeier

Does Lakewood have a profit standard for businesses to open? No.

Does Lakewood bear any responsibility for environmental costs if remediation is needed? No.

Is EV car use on track to eliminate gas cars? No, not without government force.

None of that was mentioned.

Planning Commission recommends eliminating gas stations in all mixed use zoning, which they claim are designed for pedestrian, cycling and mass transit use. This statement does not align with ordinance but is a move the city seems to encourage, whether explicitly stated or not. Most public policy discussions that encourage walkability do not explicitly say cars will be eliminated (*Originally worded to be sound harsher)

Purpose of Mixed-Use Zone: “Provide a well-designed site circulation system with a strongly defined pedestrian and vehicular network, good connections to adjacent land uses and efficient connections to transit stops.” Per Lakewood Zoning Ordinance, Article 7.

Planning Commission also recommends increasing electric charging stations, for which there is no business case for proven profitability or need. This argument also proves the misleading nature of “mixed use zoning is for pedestrian, cycles and mass transit.”

Lakewood may consider requiring charging stations as a prerequisite to approving future gas stations. This move will introduce additional market distortions with affects that were not studied at all. Gas stations already have the option to add any charging stations they feel have market demand.

Lakewood staff will be drafting new ordinances to implement these recommendations, while conducting further research.

Lakewood Following Denver

Once again, Lakewood is following in Denver’s footsteps. See some of the other side of the argument from Joshua Sharf, Complete Colorado:

“Never mind your guns, some Denver City Councilmembers are coming for your gas stations.

The Denver Post reports that, concerned by an alleged “sudden proliferation of gas stations,” Councilmembers Amanda Sawyer and Paul Kashmann, among others, have decided that gas stations – apparently uniquely among Denver’s many retail businesses – are taking too much space away from other priorities such as housing. In response to this deadly threat to housing density, they are close to proposing a zoning change precluding new gas stations from being built inside a quarter-mile buffer zone around existing stations.”

Increased Housing Density Coming to Your Neighborhood

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on July 7, 2024.

The City of Lakewood is looking for a consultant to write new zoning codes to:

densify existing neighborhoods,
improve equity, and
remove parking restrictions.

Current efforts to density have caused Lakewood to develop problems with traffic, stormwater drainage, parking and more. Existing developments have not been designed for high-density.

The city has not offered any solutions to these problems. In fact, parking is such a problem that Lakewood is studying requiring parking permits for residents – paid for by residents – rather than mandating increased parking in development plans. This proposal will intensify that problem and increase the amount of resident-funded parking permits throughout Lakewood.

Lakewood appears intent on exacerbating existing problems by allowing more densification to solve another problem… affordable housing.

It must be noted that parking, traffic and stormwater management are key functions of the city government, whereas housing is traditionally regarded as a market-based function.

There are two citizen-led initiatives in Lakewood news demonstrating that current densification is not in line with the city’s existing ordinance to maintain the existing characteristics of existing neighborhoods: a new development near Belmar Park and on Whippoorwill near Youngfield.

City ordinances are a series of laws that rule Lakewood’s development. However, Lakewood staff can interpret these rules through the lens of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

The existing Comprehensive Plan states (pg 3-12):

“The City will continue to support the diverse image and character of the community by maintaining the existing characteristics of neighborhoods with existing single-family residential zoning; creating appropriate transitions between commercial, multi-family, and mixed-use development and single-family zoned areas; and encouraging contextually appropriate infill and redevelopment projects.”

For the last several years, Lakewood has de-emphasized the existing characteristics of neighborhoods and transition zones in favor of other factors, which has caused conflict with resident groups, such as those mentioned above.

Lakewood is currently developing a new Comprehensive Plan to show the direction of the city for the next fifteen years. The densification proposal coming out before the 2040 Comprehensive Plan is finalized shows that Lakewood anticipates knowing what the results will be, regardless of any input the community provides.

The proposal reads: “The Contractor will identify goals, recommendations, and implementation strategies, to ensure the new code is consistent with the 2040 [Comprehensive] Plan.“

Since this proposal calls strictly for plans to densify, it appears that the Comprehensive Plan may have to be adjusted to match densification, rather than vice versa.

The Planning Commission will serve as the community input for this project.

See the full proposal here:

RFQ 6188 – Amend Zoning Ordinance 2024.06.21 Download

Will Lakewood Follow Denver into Lawsuits over Green Remodeling

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on May 7, 2024.

Denver and Colorado are being sued for rules on climate goals and greenhouse gas emission standards that the City of Lakewood is considering adopting. Denver and Colorado both approved a building performance standard that would force builders, landlords and homeowners to meet emission goals through green remodeling and electric appliance retrofits. Lakewood also has building performance standards through its Article 13. Lakewood takes four times as many climate mitigation and adoption steps as other cities, leading to Lakewood being named a leader in climate action. Lakewood is one of only 119 cities around globe to take steps like building standards. Rule 28 in Denver and Colorado goes even further by requiring “benchmarking” performance since 2021. Based on building performance, it is now time for required cuts, leading to a lawsuit by the Colorado Apartment Association, the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association and others. The cuts will require costly remodeling. In August of 2023, Lakewood staff recommended the city join Denver and Colorado in the benchmarking program, described below, that only about 30 cities throughout the nation have adopted. However, these policies are not market-tested and they are extreme enough that Denver and Colorado are being sued. If Lakewood leadership adopts the additional staff recommendations, or agrees to recommendations from the LAC on Green Remodeling, the city may find also find itself in the news and in legal jeopardy.

Colorado apartment landlords sue to block Denver, state greenhouse gas cuts that they find crushing

State and local governments don’t have a right to require expensive renovations and appliance swaps to cut greenhouse gases, group suit says – by Michael Booth4:08 AM MDT on Apr 25, 2024

Is Being a Leader a Good Thing?

In a “you say potato…” moment, the lawsuit in Denver shows that one person’s leader is another person’s extremist. Not everyone agrees that going where these climate policies lead is worth it. While the debate rages over climate science, policy makers rarely point out that there are two sides to the story, in order to promote their narrative. Climate policies have real-world economic consequences that could make housing even more expensive.

Lakewood already has an Enhanced Development Menu that requires new development to meets a point scheme, based on the Menu options, that achieves climate goals of rolling back emissions in compliance with state goals. Development is thereby prohibited unless it meets climate goals. The policies Lakewood is currently advocating align with Colorado’s Rule 28 that monitors energy usage for buildings not already covered by the state. This process is called benchmarking, which Lakewood staff describe as “the regular monitoring and reporting of an individual building’s energy consumption to track changes over time and monitor progress towards increased efficiency and decreased GHG emissions.”

While the process may sound routine and innocuous, this program must be put in place before the government can have access to private energy-use data.

Once in place, the data can be used to set the bar and start imposing usage limits, incentives, conversions, etc. Lakewood is specifically talking about the switch from gas-powered to electrical tools and appliances.

Excel energy use from customer bills. This monitoring could be shared with the city for benchmarking.

The Colorado and Denver rules currently only apply to commercial and multi-family units but the policy puts them to the left of cities like Boulder, as seen in the map below. In fact, Denver is second in the nation only to San Francisco. Being on the forefront of the climate change debate gets Denver in the news but it also attracts lawsuits. And Lakewood is recommending these same actions.

Lakewood is taking things a step further and seeking similar solutions for residential homes, the details of which can be found at the city website, with more from the Lakewood Informer news site.

Back in August, Lakewood staff were enthusiastic about Lakewood becoming another purple dot on the map below, which would show their leader/extremist tendencies, depending on your viewpoint. Will that change once the lawsuits start?

From Institute for Market Transformation

Give us your TABOR refunds, says Lakewood

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on April 28, 2024.

Guest Post by Alex Plotkin

A city that for over a decade has not only refused to do economic development (in a true sense), but has lost jobs and is now planning to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize developers, under the guise of “economic development.”

Lakewood demographics — From Looking@Lakewood

A city that, for over a decade, has done nothing to improve the path conditions along Alameda Avenue, in Ward 4. Nor have any improvements have been made to alleviate the traffic increases at Union and Alameda.

To be fair, the city did spend an untold amount of money to add “roundabouts” on Green Mountain Drive. Perfectly placed to create a road hazard with any amount of snow.

A city that has been lecturing the citizens about how the citizens should be planting trees, to cool the city, you know? The same city that is now allowing an-out-of-state developer to destroy a much-beloved park at Belmar, while chopping down dozens of decades-old trees.

A city where for years now the recreational fields at Carmody Park are in an awful shape. Fields where parents actually pay a fee to have their children play.

They “fixed it” this year:

And this is a park that has favorable political sunshine on it.

A city, where instead of maintaining the hiking and biking trails damaged by runoff, a sign is placed, telling you to be careful. You should see what the head of parks gets paid, though.

A city, where the City Council goes in to executive sessions, to decide on even more perks for a City Manager, while the needs of thousands of residents are ignored and the city is millions over budget:

A city, where the citizens are lectured about how they should not be driving, to save the environment and stuff. While the city has failed to champion any sort of real economic development, so that thousands of people would not have to drive out of the city for work.

A city, where the citizens are told not to drive, while the aforementioned City Manager gets paid for mileage, just to go to work. A City Manager that lives in the city. Gets paid to drive to work. Do you?

Here is an exert from City Manager’s contract:

The taxpayers, it seems also get to pay for the privilege of the department heads using the medical benefits, after they leave. Do you get a perk such as that with your employer?

The City Manager also has a retirement perk that seems more geared for a CEO than a “public servant”.

kathy-hodgson-agreement-word-2022 Download

In just one year, the city spends about $100,000,000 just on staff alone. To be fair, some of that is police, which the city’s council has been hamstringing from even enforcing the laws that exist.

Here are the compensation numbers, just for the “department heads” (as of two years ago – you may want to see the updated ones for 2024):

As you walk around the neglected parks and drive on Kipling where the road surface has been in need of repair for years and most of the lights are out on some of the sections, may be think about asking the city what has it done with the tens of millions it receives every year, before even getting to the TABOR refunds? Perhaps start off by looking at the expenditure trends of the planning and city manager’s departments?

So when Lakewood asks for your TABOR refund (for parks and police of course), ask the city – why are millions spent on just the planning and the city manager’s offices alone and why is the city millions over budget every year? The cuts should have happened years ago, with money saved then be used for the parks, police, economic development and road and infrastructure maintenance. But, instead, the city is now spending thousands of dollars of your money for marketing research to see how to manipulate the residents in to allowing the city to keep millions more from the TABOR-mandated refunds.

Tag: sustainability