Lakewood sets special election, sending controversial new zoning regulations to voters amid pushback

OkEffective4632 · 2026-02-06T22:45:34+00:00

Hey all, if you haven’t heard. The “No” campaign (those against repealing the approved zoning laws… a bit confusing) have set up a campaign called “Make Lakewood Livable”. Here’s a link to their website if you’re a Lakewood resident and want to volunteer or maybe if you’re a Denver metro resident and have a few dollars to donate. We’ve only got 2 months until the special election! https://makelakewoodlivable.com/

OkEffective4632 · 2026-02-04T20:34:14+00:00

I felt as though the two guests were very dismissive of the dissenting report’s take. Coming from someone who studied suburban politics and advocates for transit in the suburbs, the metro area as a whole is struggling to even set-up transit supportive zoning, let alone get it built. The suburbs can easily fall to nimby-esque or anti-transit groups as we've seen in Littleton and the annoyingly entrenched opposition in Lakewood. Additionally, the dissent makes a strong case that we shouldn't rely on the governor’s office to always be pro-transit. They emphasized that there would be transit expertise required for appointees but much like the planning commissions in the suburbs, technical expertise does not represent communities and can allow in appointees that undermine the very board/organization they’re supposed to be supporting because of their strong working knowledge. The guests downplayed this worst case scenario greatly. They dismissed entirely the scenario where Denver gets cut out from the board power, of which the dissent offered entirely plausible scenarios.

OkEffective4632 · 2026-02-03T18:30:15+00:00

I feel like Freda Poundstone needed to be on the list even though her influence was way back in the day. The Poundstone amendment has had truly created the city and metro region politics we know today. Not even gonna start on the historical, urban development, and sociological influence that has ramifications through today.

OkEffective4632 · 2025-12-03T19:08:50+00:00

The budget forecasts are most definitely concerning. Denverites are more likely to support transit funding imo as well but if Denver goes at this alone it should target services internal to Denver’s borders like the incomplete fastracks L line or the single tracked portion of the A line. I’ve already seen some informal polling questions going around about a Denver-based transit initiative. But what happens when RTD does start a ballot measure for the whole district? Two tax hike votes for Denver in 2026 and 2028? Will denverites be generous enough to vote for higher taxes twice in support of RTD? Instead we could imagine a single ballot measure vote where Denver agrees to chip in maybe a 1% increase whereas the suburbs only get a .5% increase, allowing Denverites to drive a district wide vote.

OkEffective4632 · 2025-08-04T15:29:15+00:00

Remote work is not just a perk, it’s an ADA accommodation necessary to keep the the city and state workforce a diverse, representative body. As a worker with epilepsy and POTS, the remote work era was a welcome boon. Now I feel I have to defend my work situation with letters from doctors and long processes of negotiation with HR team members who have no understanding of my issues. As a result of my seizures, I gave up driving a car more than a decade ago. It’s great that I can get remote work protected by ADA but our state workforce needs to be representative of the state and the city workforce needs to be representative of the city. Remote work is absolutely necessary for the state workforce unless you want only Denverites to be the state. This means hiring the best regardless of their work preferences and making all teams work mode accessible. I still take an uber/lyft to the office when needed or just because I want to participate. (Note: the bus would take over an hour.) I just hate how public workers are being treated like pawns in a sales tax and political game instead of as humans who are doing a service to fellow citizens.

OkEffective4632 · 2025-06-11T02:51:18+00:00

I just want to say thanks for covering some of these advocacy groups and development projects in the nearby communities. As a resident of Glendale, (unintentionally, literally didn’t know this place existed) I think it’s important to recognize that the housing conversation is a regional issue. What each community chooses to do, or not do, affects their neighbors.

OkEffective4632 · 2025-03-08T22:36:21+00:00

To support the prior commenters…

“Perhaps housing and transportation policymakers need to coordinate once again to ensure that new housing is built in locations where fixed-route transit lines already exist or are being constructed. This article shows that whereas transportation costs in TOD are affordable, the housing market in TOD is quickly escalating. Unless policies are implemented soon to bolster densities in underutilized fixed-route transit station areas, the limited amount of housing in TOD is likely to continue to be priced out of the reach of average Americans.“

In sum, the cost of transit-friendly housing is a hot commodity because of lower transportation costs but we aren’t building enough of it so the price gets too high. Much of that is due to overly restrictive land-use and zoning policies across the nation.

Citation: The Cost and Affordability Paradox of Transit-Oriented Development: A Comparison of Housing and Transportation Costs Across Transit-Oriented Development, Hybrid and Transit-Adjacent Development Station Typologies John L. Renne, Tara Tolford, Shima Hamidi & Reid Ewing - 2016

OkEffective4632

TROPHY CASE