City of Lakewood
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The City of Lakewood is regrouping after a major zoning defeat earlier this year.
Council members met on June 15 to discuss what the future of residential zoning changes would look like following the crushing special election defeat in April, which set the council’s work back by nearly two years.
Now, council members and city staffers will try to bridge the gap between Lakewood residents who support more affordable housing and those who were vocally against.
“Residents are not opposed to affordable or new housing, but they expect clarity about where it belongs, how it integrates with neighborhood character and how the city will safeguard environmental and infrastructure constraints.” Mayor Wendi Strom said to the council.
What were the changes?
The exhausting battle over Lakewood zoning began in February 2025, when the council was handed a nearly 400-page zoning code update, the first since 2012.
The ordinances were then broken up into multiple chunks and votes, with the council approving the entire proposal in October.
Overall, the new zoning code aimed to increase housing options for residents who could not afford single-family homes but earned too much to receive rent assistance; this was supposed to be accomplished by removing the term “single-family zoning” from the zoning code. The term was replaced by “residential dwellings,” which included single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and townhomes.
Any area in the city could then have these “residential dwellings.” These changes also aligned with new laws from state legislators, such as House Bill 24-1152, which requires cities to allow 500- to 750-square-foot accessory dwelling units wherever single-family homes are allowed, and House Bill 24-1304, which eliminated minimum parking requirements for multifamily complexes built in a “transit service area.”
Petitions, petitions, petitions
A lot of people were against these changes … over 22,000, to be exact.
Throughout various council meetings, people complained about the proposed density increase lowering property value, changing the characteristics of neighborhoods and eliminating available street parking.
Groups like Lakewood Citizens Alliance and Lakewood Stronger Together were at the forefront of the opposition, speaking out on social media and in public places, such as King Soopers. This retort culminated in a petition that struck the zoning changes from the record, putting the proposed update to a residential vote instead.
The special election was held in April 2025 and cost the city around $155,000, ending with each new ordinance being struck down by a wide margin.
Change in approach
The city isn’t giving up on zoning changes after the election — it’s just pivoting.
During June 15’s council meeting, the city released an executive summary highlighting four themes identified after representatives met with constituents over the past two months: trust issues with the government, smaller changes over time, support for growth in transit areas, like Colfax, and a commitment to maintain neighborhood characteristics.
“Everyone is important in this conversation,” Strom said, adding that “process and trust issues came out, probably, in every conversation.”
Strom, along with other representatives, noted that stronger community outreach and meetings were necessary if the city wanted to build trust and have resident-backed changes.
Council member Isabel Cruz said it’s important to avoid the “doom circle” of only people who are very opinionated participating, ultimately overlooking those who are directly affected but may not know enough about it to speak publicly.
“There remains an overabundance of discretionary power,” resident Lenore Herskovitz wrote on the city’s website on June 15. “Solutions have been offered, but they have been placed on hold or ignored. What has been missing is collaboration.”
Regarding the “neighborhood characteristics,” Council member Roger Low said that statement may have racial undertones, as neighborhood “character” can historically refer to racism in urban development, and some people fear change in neighborhoods they love.
“We have to accept and understand two truths: Some of the restrictive things that are baked into conventional Euclidean zoning do have a racist origin,” he said. “But for a ton of people in the city, people get really anxious when city councils talk about changing too many things at once in their residential zoning. That comes from a place of good faith.”
What’s next?
The idea is to continue with more open discussions, build trust with residents and then attack the zoning code again in even smaller pieces, according to council members.
The council will discuss incremental changes in eight “buckets,” such as parkland protection, accessory dwelling units, state-required changes and so on, rather than swaths of changes.
Another idea is an opt-in, where a neighborhood can decide to change directly to new residential zoning, speeding up the process.
