Changes being made to Lakewood’s zoning code have raised questions and ire throughout the community, especially when it comes to the city’s single-family residential districts.

Residents have said they want to retain their single-family home neighborhoods.

The city never had single-family only residential zoning, according to Mayor Wendi Strom.

“The city’s current zone districts often associated mostly with single-family homes already allow several of the following uses: duplexes, group homes, accessory dwelling uses, animal care businesses, bed-and-breakfasts, etc. Lakewood doesn’t currently have a zone district where only single-family home use is allowed,” Strom said in a statement following the 9-2 approval of the zoning changes at a City Council meeting on Monday.

But some residents are miffed — and bewildered.

Resident Chris Geissbuhler wrote on the City Council’s website on Sept. 8 that any new zoning that would “force high-density developments into single-family communities would certainly adversely impact property values for residents who bought into those areas with the current and future value of their property in mind.”

The disconnect between residents’ beliefs and what city officials insist are the actual code changes comes down to misinformation, according to Lakewood spokesperson Stacie Oulton.

“Many residents have repeated the information about the city getting rid of single-family only zoning, but that doesn’t make it correct,” she said. “In some cases, the language that residents are using is inflammatory to provoke an emotional response.”

Former zoning versus new

On Monday, the Lakewood City Council approved an amended version of Article 3 of the city’s 2026 zoning code proposal — a 400-page planning document covering residential, commercial and mixed-use site design standards, parking and historic preservation.

The entirety of the new zoning proposal is set to be voted upon before the Nov. 4 election.

The proposal ultimately erases the term “single-family zoning,” which does not appear in the document. Instead, the city uses “residential dwellings.” A residential dwelling could be a single-family home, duplex, tri-plex or townhome.

The new residential districts are broken up into low-form residential and mid-form residential classifications.

Low-form residential will include single-family homes and small-scale attached and detached housing to “support compact, walkable neighborhoods with a range of housing options,” according to the proposal.

Mid-form will include medium-density housing and multi-family buildings.

The updates include combining nine residential uses into three: residential dwellings, accessory dwellings and temporary dwellings, according to Oulton.

The current code has eight different residential districts. Seven allow single-family homes and accessory dwelling units that have met specific standards. Two include permitted uses of duplexes. One includes multi-family dwelling units and attached dwelling units.

All eight districts include permitted use of group homes. Some allow bed and breakfast buildings, cemeteries, day cares and even golf courses.

None are single-family residential use only.

There are a number of group homes in several residential neighborhoods in the city, according to Oulton. There are no cemeteries that she is aware of, but the Lakewood Country Club is in a residential neighborhood in northern Lakewood and a golf course is one of the uses allowed there.

Lakewood is also moving to limit the size of new residential dwellings, cutting the maximum from 18,000 square feet to 5,000 or less. In low-form residential zones, that means residential dwellings would be capped at 4,000 square feet with one or two units, such as a single-family home or a duplex, and 5,000 square feet for three or more units, such as a tri-plex.

The change is tied to a 2024 state law — House Bill 24-1007 — that supersedes Lakewood’s old rule allowing only five unrelated people to share a home. Under one reading of the state law, a very large house could be rented out room by room to dozens of people, sharply increasing neighborhood population.

There hasn’t been a market for massive homes that could be rented out to numerous people, according to Oulton, but the new restrictions will act as a guardrail to avoid the possibility.

“Zoning isn’t about dramatic changes overnight,” she said. “The proposed updates change nothing with single-family homeowners’ ability to live in their current single-family home, sell it, or pass it on. Because of the potential impacts from new state laws, we are actually making the zoning code more restrictive overall.”

A divided city

The opinion on the zoning changes appears to be split.

While there are Facebook groups like Lakewood Is for Everyone garnering petition signatures against the zoning proposal, many have shown up in support at City Council meetings.

The City Council decided in August to break the proposal down into four separate second readings, voting on each section individually to allow for more public input.

At the first meeting on Aug. 25, 33 people spoke in favor of the zoning updates. Eight people spoke against them.

During a nearly eight-hour council meeting on Sept. 8, 22 public speakers testified in favor of the updates, while 22 were against them.

At the Sept. 22 meeting, eight people spoke in favor of the zoning updates, and five people spoke against them.

“I have yet to see a bulldozer. No single-family homes are being destroyed. We are not in a war zone, like it sounds like,” Amber Varwig said during public comments on Sept. 22. “We’re going to lose our seniors and our kids because we don’t have the housing that they need to survive here.”

“Simply cramming in more townhomes or duplexes or apartments everywhere doesn’t guarantee “affordability,” a resident named Regina commented on the City Council’s website on Sept. 7. “It often pushes property values up, strains infrastructure, schools, and roads, and erodes neighborhood character. In other words, creating density in every neighborhood doesn’t magically lower prices. It just densifies chaos, traffic and competition for limited resources.”

The last section of the proposal —  the overview of the zoning map — is set to be voted on next month. A meeting regarding the map is currently scheduled for Oct. 13. If it gets final approval, the new zoning document would go into effect next year.