Colorado’s governor and legislature are leading us all down a primrose path to density zoning. It’s a wonky term for cramming more housing into less space. There’s even an attempt at an elegant variation — the more marketable “gentle density” — meaning, wedge more expensive multiplexes between single-family homes.

It’s the hobby horse of the self-styled urban visionaries at the Capitol who purport to know better than the rest of us how we could live more “sustainably.” Foremost among their priorities toward that end is to get more of us to live closer together. 

All of which is fine and well for those who choose it. There are neighborhoods aplenty in the population centers along Colorado’s Front Range — both urban infill and out on the periphery — that offer the intimacy of sharing walls with neighbors, retail and the like. And, of course, traditional apartment living always has been a fallback for those of modest means and an entry-level first stop for young workers and professionals starting out on their own.

Yet, fully two-thirds of Coloradans live in single-family homes, in single-family neighborhoods. And now, whether they like it or not, the state as well as some Colorado municipalities are trying to undermine them — by force. State-imposed changes to local zoning codes, pushed through the General Assembly by Gov. Jared Polis over the past two years, mandate a host of revisions to land-use rules on matters ranging from housing units per parcel to parking. 

Six Colorado cities are fighting back, challenging the new state laws’ constitutionality in court. 

But some other cities are caving in, even embracing the governor’s agenda out of a misguided belief that uprooting their single-family-home neighborhoods will lower housing costs. 

As reported in The Gazette this week, Lakewood’s City Council has done just that. By a 9-2 vote, the council erased the use of single-family zoning, allowing for multi-family homes like duplexes and condos to be built in those areas. Many Lakewood citizens are justifiably angry.

The council majority claims the move somehow will make housing in the west-metro suburb more affordable. In a strictly textbook kind of way, it’s plausible. Theoretically, it could increase the number of dwelling units at some point. More supply, lower prices, right? 

But connecting those dots in the real world — with all the practical factors that figure into the Front Range’s real estate market — is quite a stretch. Far more likely, the sweeping policy shift only will disrupt the American dream. 

It’s a long-cherished aspiration — four walls to oneself with a small patch of land all around — and the state has no business barging in.

Nor does it make sense for local governments to pull the rug out from under neighborhoods where long-standing zoning rules have protected the property values — and the historic right to the peaceful enjoyment of one’s property — of single-family homeowners for generations.

Experimenting with greater density in new, master-planned communities that don’t displace prior neighborhoods and their lifestyles may be reasonable. That also applies, arguably, where urban blight already has deprived a long-declining area of livability, typically in an inner city.

But wherever it’s already established and thriving, Colorado’s predominant and perennially most popular mode of living must be respected and protected.