Lakewood council pauses rewrite of parkland-dedication rules after hours-long debate; third reading set for Feb. 24

Lakewood City Council on Monday night opened an extended public hearing and lines of debate over a city-led rewrite of its park- and open-space dedication code, debating how — and whether — the city should require developers to provide land, pay fees in lieu, or build alternative public spaces when new housing is added.

The council moved a revised staff draft into the record after multiple amendments, then voted 9-0 to table the ordinance for a third reading on Feb. 24 so the public can review the changes before final action.

The draft being debated would replace Chapter 14.16 of the Lakewood Municipal Code, a code section that specifies how much land or money developers must provide for parks and how the city can spend collected fees. Council and staff said the discussion grew urgent after a citizen-led ordinance approved last fall produced unforeseen effects — staff reported 102 development projects that have been placed on hold since that initiative took effect Dec. 7.

Council members and staff emphasized two goals that shaped the debate: preserving and expanding parks where the community is underserved, and avoiding rules that would freeze development and make housing projects infeasible. Community Resources Director Tracy Whelan said the city already uses some park-fee funds to buy land and build neighborhood and community parks in areas of need, and staff drew on a 2023 study by Norris Design when drafting the new ordinance.

Residents filled council chambers and the meeting’s public-comment list. Speakers included neighborhood advocates worried about tree loss around Belmar Park, nonprofit affordable-housing developers who said the earlier citizen-led ordinance halted projects and made financing unpredictable, and housing advocates who urged exemptions for deeply affordable projects. Examples of public testimony included:

- Linda Geese, Ward 5 resident, described concerns about habitat and mature trees adjacent to Belmar Park and asked that the site remain parkland rather than be developed.

- Lucas Hagen, research and policy manager at the Neighborhood Development Collaborative, said the prior ordinance “hinders income-restricted housing construction” and urged changes to let mission-driven, nonprofit builders continue work in Lakewood.

- Krista Macco, a Ward 5 resident and small-scale developer, described a 26-unit workforce housing project near light rail that was rendered infeasible after the citizen-led ordinance; her team said the new fee formula would have required dedicating more land than the site could provide.

Councilors voiced the range of tensions in the room: some urged stronger protections for mature trees and park character; others repeatedly warned that steep, citywide dedication requirements had already paused housing projects and reduced developers’ ability to secure state or private financing. Councilor Randall Lowe emphasized the need to give the development community predictability, while Councilor (Mayor Pro Tem) Sharazai argued that larger projects should include an avenue for public review.

Council amendments adopted during the meeting clarified the role of “improvements in lieu” — alternative public amenities such as plazas, community gardens, trail segments or trail-rights-of-way — and added language making such connectivity to parks explicitly eligible as an improvement in lieu. Council also added directions to prioritize using park-fee funds to acquire parkland in neighborhoods shown to be underserved.

Affordable-housing exemptions were a flashpoint. Council ultimately amended the draft to waive parkland-dedication obligations for developments that are fully affordable by the state’s Proposition 123 definition (i.e., rental projects with units at or below 60 percent of area median income or for-sale projects defined under Prop 123). Council members said they expect to revisit the broader intersection of park requirements and affordable-housing incentives in forthcoming work on inclusionary zoning.

After several amendments were adopted, the council voted 9-0 to replace the earlier first-reading document with the staff draft and to continue working through amendments. Council then voted 9-0 to table the ordinance and schedule third reading and a public hearing for Feb. 24. Council asked staff to post a redline showing all amendments and to provide the public the final packet before the next meeting; staff said they would post the redline by late Wednesday or Thursday.

“Because of the speed and the nature that we have gone through this month trying to make sure that we are reducing as much as we can the harmful impacts that are currently being experienced,” the mayor said during introductory remarks, “we will in fact be doing a third reading that will be on February 24.”

What’s next: the council’s Feb. 24 meeting will include a third reading and public hearing. Staff will post an annotated redline and the revised packet on LakewoodSpeaks.org for review. If the council adopts the ordinance on Feb. 24, it would replace current Chapter 14.16; the council emphasized that some projects already in the city’s permit queue can elect to be reviewed under the prior code as of the date they filed their application.

Context: Council and applicants repeatedly framed the debate as a balance between two civic priorities: expanding and protecting parks and open space, and permitting more housing — including income-restricted and workforce housing — to be built in place. Staff repeatedly noted that fee-in-lieu funds have been used to acquire roughly 192 acres citywide since 2018, with a majority of neighborhood/community acquisitions in districts identified as underserved. The council said they will return to this topic as part of broader land-use and housing policy work.