The Save Open Space Lakewood Green Initiative has officially received enough valid signatures to move on to the next step - A CITY COUNCIL VOTE and PUBLIC HEARING November 4! City council must either pass our initiative, as written by the citizens, or pass a resolution setting a date to send our initiative, as written by the citizens, to the voters.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard just to get our elected officials to pay attention to us and DO something!
This is our one and only time to ask the city council to pass the SOS initiative. Please consider attending the council meeting Nov. 4 to let your elected officials know how important it is to stop developers from buying out of our park dedication requirement. City Council should hear how overdevelopment and the concrete jungle we are creating is negatively impacting our community. (This meeting was originally scheduled for Nov. 18 but changed in apparent hopes to silence this issue by putting it the day before the national election. Please help make some noise!)
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 pm in city council chambers at 480 S Allison Pkwy. The SOS petition is item 11 but expected to start shortly after 7. Comments may be made in person at the meeting or in writing on line at
https://lakewoodspeaks.org/items/3945. In person comments are limited to 3 minutes. Individuals may have up to 10 minutes to speak if they pool time with three others.
Item 12 is setting a date for a special election. Obviously we would prefer that the city council pass the initiative. But it is more likely that our city council, a majority of whom are big-money corporate development supporters, will vote against the initiative and force a special election. By fast-tracking the signature counting process, the city has been successful in timing the election to occur between December 10 and January 14. The date for the ballot is blank on the proposed resolution. SOS Lakewood hopes people will advocate for the latest date possible - January 14 - to avoid holiday conflicts as much as possible. Comments concerning the date for a special election can be made in person on Nov. 4 (following the vote on the initiative) or written on line at
https://lakewoodspeaks.org/items/3946.
We are on our way to making a difference in making a greener, cleaner, environmentally friendly Lakewood!
Cathy
Save Open Space Lakewood is a grass-roots initiative created and promoted by Lakewood residents who seek change in the status quo of rubber stamping development projects without consideration of the future impacts to residents and our natural environment. If successful, developers will no longer be allowed to buy their way out of city code which requires developments to provide parks and open space.
Initiative Summary as Set by Lakewood City Clerk
Shall the City of Lakewood Municipal Code Chapter 14.16. PARK AND OPEN SPACE DEDICATION be repealed and replaced to eliminate the option for developers to pay a fee in lieu of parkland dedication and to require the City to accept open space and land dedications for current and future developments.
Read the Current Code
Save Belmar Park, formed in September 2023, is one of many neighborhood groups that have had similar experiences with Lakewood and developers. The objective of Save Open Space Lakewood’s initiative is to bring all of these groups together to work toward their common goal of protecting Lakewood’s natural environment.
