This regular meeting of Lakewood City Council was held on September 15, 2025, at 7:30 PM in Council Chambers. The council addressed a wide range of items including opioid settlement funds, a major downtown redevelopment project, a gender freedom policy, property tax relief, and public input on transportation infrastructure. Several resolutions were adopted, and others were referred to committees for further discussion.
All right, we'll call council uh to order for the September 15th meeting. If you're able, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Now pause for a moment of silence. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Vice President Baker. Here. Council Member Bullock. Here. Councilmember Evans. Here. President Keppel. Here. Councilmember Marks. Absent. Councilmember Steiner. Here. Councilmember Streebig. Here. Move to excuse the absence of Councilwoman Marks. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes. Reading and disposal of the minutes of the regular meeting of council held September 2nd, 2025. Move to approve without the necessity of a reading. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, aye. And that motion passes. Item one. Report from Housing Planning and Development Committee held September 8th, 2025. Vice President Baker. Thank you. Dear colleagues, the Housing Planning Development Committee met on September 8th to address two topics. The first was the follow-up discussion on ordinance 182025 regarding front yard plantings. This ordinance was introduced in May by the building department as a way both explicitly permit front yard plantings and to establish certain regulations around them. Since this ordinance was introduced, committee members have received a great deal of thoughtful feedback from gardeners and residents. As chair, I intempted to incorporate this feedback into a revised ordinance that the committee discussed at the meeting. Next planning department provided uh the committee with a summary of a transit feasibility study the city undertook in 2024 with the support of ITERS. The objective of the study was to evaluate different models for Lakewood specific public transportation network, similar to the popular Lakewood circulator that operated from 1998 to 2009. Six different models with a variety of characteristics were explored. ITERRIS evaluated on demand versus fixed stops, city operated versus contractor operated, as well as hybrid options. The ultimate conclusion was that none of the models could be profitable, though the study all was also able to suss out which models were closer to being profitable than others. Council members shared a variety of takeaways. Some members advocated for further study and some advocated for caution and others advocated for prioritizing the transportation network regardless of cost.