“This is a consequential issue for the city of Lakewood … and I hope that everyone will get out and vote,” Lakewood City Councilman Roger Low said of a decision to schedule a spec…
A home is pictured under construction at 6400 W. Exposition Ave. in Lakewood on Sept. 26, 2025. Lakewood City Council is considering whether to take recent rezoning efforts to voters after a citizen initiative opposing the changes was launched.
passed by the city’s elected leaders last year after a group of citizens mounted an effort to challenge the new rules. The City Council decided early Tuesday morning to send its zoning updates, which are intended to spur greater density and the building of more affordable homes in the city of 156,000, to an April 7 special election. “This is a consequential issue for the city of Lakewood — I think we all agree on that — and I hope that everyone will get out and vote,” Councilman Roger Low said at the end of a Monday night meeting that stretched more than five hours and ended after midnight.that the tax had been imposed in violation of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which requires any new tax in Colorado to first get voter approval in an election. The $42,154,189 the city must return to 177 companies represents more than 13% of the city’s 2026 budget. On the zoning matter, the council passed four ordinances in the last half of 2025 that together encouraged the construction of more varied housing types, and by extension, greater density — with the ultimate aim of lowering home prices in a notoriously expensive metro housing market.— like duplexes and townhomes — anywhere in the city. They also limit new home sizes to 5,000 square feet and urge the conversion of vacant or underused commercial buildings to housing.collected more than 10,000 signatures last fall to place four measures on a proposed March 31 special election ballot — changed to April 7 by the council — that will give voters the final say. The successful petition left the council with the choice of either repealing the ordinances or sending the matter to a special election. Opponents say the city’s zoning changes will endanger the character of older neighborhoods and won’t actually help reduce home prices. “These zoning ordinances are not good for Lakewood, because they reduce transparency and have development decisions occur behind closed doors,” said a rezoning opponent, Cathy Kentner, a former Lakewood mayoral candidate who has long fought density efforts in the city. “These ordinances would encourage overdevelopment at the cost of our natural environment and with no guarantee of affordability that we are all looking for.” In a news release issued last week, fellow opponent and lifelong Lakewood resident Regina Hopkins called the city’s rezoning efforts “a blueprint for crammed, profit-driven development, bulldozed trees and ignored infrastructure.”approved a charter amendment Two Denver suburbs take different paths as residents face housing crunch: ‘We can manage it, but just barely’Lakewood loosens green space mandates for homebuilders after projects ground to a halt Supporters of Lakewood’s redrafted zoning regulations say the status quo is simply not working. Young families, they say, are finding it increasingly impossible to find a reasonably priced starter home. “There’s nothing about the new zoning code that allows for the bulldozing of neighborhoods — it’s completely disinformation,” Lakewood resident Shane Sarnak said during public comment Monday night.in metro Denver was $650,000, up 0.39% from 2024 and also from 2022, when the median price was $647,500. Median condo and townhome prices looked more fatigued, falling 2.85% from 2024 to $391,900 in 2025., with the plaintiffs claiming the legislature and Gov. Jared Polis were encroaching on their home-rule powers to set land-use rules.Denver metro school delays and closures for Jan. 26, 2026Keeler: Broncos should spend Russell Wilson money on getting Bo Nix receivers without butterfingersParker Gabriel’s 7 Thoughts: Weeklong Sean Payton masterclass followed by Broncos’ AFC title game mistakes will sting forever Parker Gabriel's 7 Thoughts: Weeklong Sean Payton masterclass followed by Broncos' AFC title game mistakes will sting foreverColorado needs a graduated income tax because we can’t rely on Washington anymore
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