A ballot measure that would markedly curtail new homebuilding in Colorado’s fifth-largest city has stimulated a big-money effort to quash it — with developer interests amassing nearly $300,000 in contributions compared with just $4,000 from those pushing for a growth limit in Lakewood.
Ballots started hitting mailboxes last week in preparation for the July 2 special election, with Question 200 the only issue to be voted on.
Five issue committees have formed to defeat Question 200, which would cap annual residential growth in Lakewood at no more than 1 percent of the existing housing stock. The measure would also require that projects with at least 40 units get City Council approval before turning dirt.
As of May 31, the National Association of Realtors had put $200,000 into the effort to sink Question 200, along with $25,000 each from the Colorado Association of Realtors and the Associated General Contractors of Colorado. They made their contributions to issue committee Lakewood United, according to campaign finance filings submitted to the Lakewood clerk’s office.
Nearly $40,000 more has been collected by the anti-200 group Citizens for a Sound Government. The next reporting deadline for the committees is June 25.
“Instead of being silent, we thought we should get the word out to the citizens,” said Michael Gifford, president and CEO of the Associated General Contractors. “While there are challenges with growth, this is the wrong solution.”
Lakewood’s fight over the future of housing in this city of 156,000 comes to a head as the metro area grapples with often-severe growing pains — population growth rates in metro-area counties since 2010 have ranged from 10.7 percent in Boulder County to 20.1 percent in Douglas County.
This spring’s high-profile Denver mayoral election, decided June 4, largely focused on the pace of development issues.
Cathy Kentner, the main force behind Question 200, is hopeful the measure will pass next month despite the lopsided financial advantage held by her opponents. She noted that the contributions her side has collected have come locally and in small denominations.
“I know people who live in Lakewood are smart,” she said. “If we listened to big money, we wouldn’t have gotten this far. Big money has not won so far, and the last step is the election.”
Kentner and her allies say Lakewood has let developers get too deep a toehold in the city, especially in the last five years or so. Too many high-end apartment complexes are rising across this west suburb, she said, with little attention paid to what that does to quality of life in the city.
According to data provided by the city last week, Lakewood has issued an increasing number of certificates of occupancy over the last decade. Whereas in 2010 Lakewood issued 194 occupancy certificates, that number jumped to 356 in 2014. It skyrocketed to 1,178 last year, with nearly 82 percent of those issued for apartments.
Based on Lakewood’s current housing stock of about 67,000 residential units, Question 200 would permit fewer than 700 new homes to be built per year.
“It’s about responsible development — the right building in the right place,” Kentner said. “Building at a high price point causes the more affordable units in the city to raise their rents.”
But Teo Nicolais vehemently disagrees. Nicolais, vice president of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, said there is a simple supply-and-demand dynamic at play when artificial caps are put on new construction.
“The reason rents have been going up is that there are not enough units being added,” he said. “Growth limiting initiatives hurt affordable housing.”
Last year, the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University projected that the region around Denver would hit a peak shortage of 32,000 homes and apartments in 2018, putting upward pressure on home prices for years to come.
“The way to move forward is to manage growth efficiently — but certainly not to limit growth,” Nicolais said.
Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul said that is exactly what the city has been doing for the last 18 months, with its Lakewood Development Dialogue group suggesting density-easing ideas like larger setbacks for multifamily buildings, more open space dedications from developers and additional amenities for those living in larger residential projects.
Paul worries that higher rents and higher property taxes that would be spurred by a construction cap would burden older homeowners and force middle-class workers such as police officers and nurses to live outside Lakewood and commute into the city for their jobs.
He noted that the coalition opposing Question 200 has blossomed to include groups from various ends of the political spectrum, like AARP, Habitat for Humanity, the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and all three Jefferson County commissioners.
“Let’s not react in fear to growth, let’s react in a smart way,” the mayor said.
But Kentner said Lakewood’s efforts to deal with its growth didn’t even begin until she started collecting signatures for Question 200, which was then known as the Lakewood Strategic Growth Initiative. The measure, which was originally destined for the November 2017 ballot, was sidetracked by legal challenges until a district judge gave the measure the go-ahead late last year.
She said a door-knocking effort with volunteers distributing 15,000 flyers lauding the measure began last week.
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John Henderson, a resident of Lakewood’s Solterra neighborhood, backs Question 200. He isn’t surprised by the financial muscle being put into the campaign by the measure’s opponents.
“It’s a classic example of a special interest group whose income is threatened and they are spending a lot of money to protect themselves,” he said.
But Henderson said most people in Lakewood don’t want their city to become home to New Jersey-like high-rise apartments sitting in the shadow of the Manhattan skyline. Question 200 makes the city accountable to its residents when it comes to urban planning, he said.
“This isn’t anything more than an effort by the citizens of our community to get a seat at the table,” Henderson said.
