Housing, Planning, & Development Committee Meeting – March 4, 2026
The Housing, Planning, & Development Committee met to discuss Substitute Ordinance 02-2026, which amends the City's weed ordinance to establish regulations for front yard plantings, including Managed Natural Landscapes. The meeting focused on finalizing the ordinance language and diagrams, with an emphasis on a soft rollout and educational enforcement. Note: The agenda and transcript indicate the meeting occurred on March 9, 2026, but the user-specified date is March 4, 2026. This summary uses the provided date and notes the discrepancy.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes of the March 2, 2026 Housing, Planning, & Development Committee meeting (motion, second, all in favor).
Discussion Items
- Substitute Ordinance 02-2026 – Front Yard Plantings Regulations: Commissioner Parmalee presented the updated ordinance, noting changes to setback diagrams (2-foot setback from public right-of-way and side property lines on corner and interior lots, reduced from a previous 4-foot proposal for corner lots). Councilman Bullock identified a discrepancy between the diagram for interior lots (showing two driveways) and the text, suggesting the diagram should show only the owner's driveway. The committee agreed to remove one of the orange driveway boundaries and add an "owner's driveway" label. The diagram will be updated and presented at the next full Council meeting.
- Enforcement and Education Rollout: Councilman Bullock and Commissioner Parmalee discussed the need for a reasonable implementation approach, including public education via social media, coordination with property maintenance inspectors, and a soft-first-year enforcement policy that prioritizes coaching over citations, especially for sight-line obstructions. The intent is to encourage ecological benefits (pollinator support, stormwater management) while maintaining public safety and community values.
Key Outcomes
- Committee voted to substitute the ordinance with the version in Granicus (motion by Bullock, seconded, all in favor).
- Committee voted to refer the substitute ordinance favorably to full Council (motion, second, all in favor), with the understanding that the interior lot diagram will be corrected before the Council vote.
- The ordinance is expected to take effect immediately upon adoption (emergency measure) and will be implemented with a year-long adaptive rollout.
Meeting Transcript
All right, I will call to order the March 9th, 2026 meeting of the housing planning and development committee. We have all members present, plus uh a couple other council people. Thank you. Uh first order of business approval of the minutes of the March 2nd, 2026 housing planning and development committee. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. And main order business night substance or uh substitute ordinance 02-2026 pertaining to amend the chapter 1775 for weeds, the codified city ordinance ordinances of the city of Lakewood. For the purpose of establishing regulations for front yard plantings, um we've been around the block on this a few times. I think we're pretty much to the end here. Um so um I'll turn it over to uh uh Commissioner Parmalee for his thoughts. What there we go. My thoughts are it was a long Monday back, and it's nice to come to work to be able to relax. Um yeah, we uh updated the diagram like we talked about last time. So corner lot, two foot, two foot, interior lot, two foot, two foot. Um kind of makes sense, not as heavy handed, you know, as the four foot for the corner lots. Still gives us a little bit of sight triangle that that we can work with there in the corners um the right-of-way. We had a little bit of well, it wasn't language change, it was a number change. Um Baker pointed that one out, so I think that got edited. Kind of ready to get this one just in the books uh so I could spend some time with the property maintenance staff before we start getting heavy in the planning seasons. All right, great, thanks. Um Councilman Bullock, you had pointed out something you thought was an error. I'm not sure if that's the case, but what was your where you thought there was a discrepancy? Thanks, Mr. Chair. Uh yeah, let me uh find the so um in subsection three, so under 1771 177503 B on any other lot managed landscape shall have no less than a setback of no less than two feet from the public right of way, two feet from the side property line, see figure two interior lot. Uh okay, wait a minute, that's the wrong section. Uh on the corner lot, manage landscape shall have so this is section two. A setback of no less than two feet from the public right of way and two feet from the side property line. So I think the diagram, the substitute diagram doesn't show that it shows just two feet from the public right of way, but not from the side property line. Or the interior lot as an error because the interior lot diagram. I don't know if we can display uh on screen the diagram if we go scroll down. All right, so it scroll up just a little bit a little bit more, a little bit more. So if you can see section two, we actually need to see section two. Yeah, that they uh wait, too much. Sorry. You could probably click on the margin and it'll tighten if you do that. That would be ideal. No, uh yeah, uh click on the space in between. Okay, well well, so maybe just let's go on the on the picture. Thank you. So uh okay, the the point I'm driving at is is are we sure that the the charts match the the word in the text? And I I'm confused about the interpretation here. Uh it says on any other lot in three, setback of no less than two feet from the public right of way and two feet from the side property line. So the bottom right figure two interior lot shows two feet from the public right-of-way, which is the bottom of the picture of the sidewalk, and then two feet from the side property line. So that the interpretation would be that the driveways normally one driveway belongs to the property.
openpublica.com