By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado
LAKEWOOD – It appears that after Lakewood residents spoke at the ballot on controversial zoning changes, city council members decided they want the last word, having since created new municipal rules that will make citizen-initiated issues harder to put before voters.
Lakewood — a home-rule community — borders Denver on the west. It is home to just under 160,000 residents in Jefferson County.
In April, Lakewood voters took to the ballot via a special election and repealed major zoning changes that among other things, would have allowed multifamily units, such as duplexes, triplexes, or townhomes to be built city-wide on lots currently zoned for single family detached homes, as well as eliminating parking minimums in some areas.
The zoning changes were passed by city council in 2025 through four separate ordinances that took 400 pages to document. The special election that successfully repealed those ordinances was brought via Colorado’s constitutionally guaranteed citizens’ initiative process.
Now, the same city council at a July 27 meeting — in what some residents call retaliation for the April vote — passed an ordinance heaping new burdens on citizen-initiated ballot measures. The changes to the municipal code passed 9-2, with only Councilmembers Jacob LaBure and Paula Nystrom dissenting.