LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A Lakewood family is looking to raise awareness over what they believe is an unintended consequence of a recently passed citizen-led ordinance.
When Katie Christensen and her family bought their Lakewood home in 2023, the plan was to renovate the house and take advantage of the outdoor space. The home sits on two lots totaling 1.3 acres.
"We were looking for something where we could have our boys do things outdoors all the time," Christensen said.
The proposed plan for the house is to demolish the current structure and rebuild a two-story home.
"With doing the two stories, we were able to shorten the footprint a bit," Christensen said.
Then, their permit process hit a snag.
"Their direct words is that we had to dedicate, through an easement, 1,300 square feet of our property back to the city, which equates to about a 37 X 37 ft square, which means then that we can never build on it. We can't do anything with it. It has to just be open space and comply with the city's open space requirements from now until the end of time, which is ridiculous," Christensen said.
Lakewood
Likely 'illegal' Lakewood ordinance goes into effect Saturday
The ordinance originated around a controversial apartment complex near Belmar Park. Neighbors had been fighting to protect the park and its green space for more than a year. They claim the project would reach the sidewalk near the park and bring around 900 more people to the area, impacting the wildlife that calls the open space home.
Under previous rules, a developer who did not want to dedicate some of the existing green space on their property to the City of Lakewood for parkland was required to pay a fee in lieu of the dedication. Those fees were then used for improvements to other parks and open spaces in Lakewood.
A group of Lakewood citizens pushed through an ordinance that removed the option for developers to pay the fee-in-lieu. The Lakewood City Council approved that change in Nov. 2024.
Christensen received a message from city staff who said, "[The ordinance] makes no provisions for replacing an existing home."
Lakewood
Developer of controversial Belmar Park apartment project sues City of Lakewood
Christensen said she can't help but feel frustrated at the people who pushed this initiative through.
"They didn't consider that it had effects on other people than the one development that they were trying to stop," she said.
Because of other property and easement rules, she believes the only area of land that would satisfy the requirement would be right in the middle of their yard.
"Which means they have to come over other portions of our property to get to it," Christensen said. "From my bathroom window, I could be potentially looking at people sunbathing in my yard. It's just absurd."
Kairoi Properties, LLC., the developer behind the 412-unit luxury apartment building planned for the area near Belmar Park, has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the new ordinance is illegal.
The City of Lakewood declined an interview due to the pending legal challenge but released a statement, saying in part, "[The Christensen's project] involves a plat and the building of a new structure; therefore, it comes under the parkland dedication requirements."
Full statement:
"All residential developments requiring any type of plat or site plan is subject to the City Code. [The Christensen's project] involves a plat and the building of a new structure; therefore, it comes under the parkland dedication requirements.
The ordinance also anticipates that some residential dedications will be smaller than 0.3 acres. In those cases, the land can remain in private ownership, but the portion of the land dedicated to parkland must be publicly dedicated to Lakewood’s open space and not used for private purposes.
Under the current ordinance, the city no longer has the authority to assess a property owner a fee to pay toward the city’s parkland needs instead of dedicating some of the owner’s private property to parkland use.
Prior to this citizen-initiated ordinance, if a change to a single-family home didn’t require a plat or a site plan, parkland dedication or a fee was not required."
The Christensen family said they can't imagine they are the only ones dealing with this headache and hope the code concerns get sorted out in court soon.
"We're just one little individual family with limited resources. It'd be great if we could band together," Christensen said.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.