Lakewood City Council will discuss on Monday how the city's building permits may be affected in 2020.
The council needs to decide on a timeline for how to allocate building permits under the city’s new growth limit. Lakewood voters passed the measure in July. It caps new residential housing growth to 1 percent a year.
Stacie Oulton, a spokeswoman with the city, said some property owners and developers are concerned about losing their investments if they don’t get building permits, especially if they have smaller projects with just a few units.
“Some residents worried it would cause further deterioration in their neighborhoods,” Oulton said in an email. “But on the flip side, residents were worried that growth wasn’t being stopped fast enough.”
The challenge is that, as things currently stand, property owners might invest time and money for a project and then find out after a long process that the project isn't approved. If they’re denied, they may have to pay additional costs while they wait for the following year’s application to open.
That's about 700 allocations.
Here's where it gets tricky for anybody wanting to build: The timeline for allocations is broken into three phases, according to the city council agenda. In the first phase, property owners can submit as application and then the city provides feedback about where red flags may arise in the process. Only about one of 10 applications submitted will be approved for the next phase of development.
Projects that need additional approvals like zoning changes will be evaluated during the next phase and may be denied at this point. Projects in the final phase go through an administrative process and can’t be denied if it meets all code requirements.
Affordable housing applications will also be discussed at Monday’s meeting. Opponents of the measure were concerned the growth limit would increase housing costs and price people out of Lakewood.
During an August meeting, city officials said property inside urban renewal areas would be considered “blighted.” Property in blighted areas makes it exempt from the growth restrictions. Council will also talk about additional areas in Ward 2 that could be considered blighted.
A similar growth measure for the Front Range could be up on the 2020 ballot.
You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!
It takes a good day’s drive to cover Colorado, but we’ll help you do it in a few minutes. Our newsletters bring you a closer look at the stories that affect you and the music that inspires you.
Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. Listen now.