The Roots of Community Sustainability in Lakewood

By Thomas P. Quinn, Lakewood City Councilor, Ward 5

A sustainable community is defined under Lakewood's 2003 Comprehensive Plan as "a community that is able to meet current needs without compromising its ability to effectively function in the future." Lakewood's journey of sustainability began nine years ago with commencement of the process for revision of the City's Comprehensive Plan.

In 2000, the Lakewood Planning Commission, acting as a steering committee, moved forward with the process of a complete rewrite of the Lakewood Comprehensive Plan. With no funds available from the City for such a mission, the Planning Commission, working together with staff, began and ended this process on a shoestring budget. The Commission and staff held monthly and sometimes bi-weekly study sessions to consider each successive section of the plan. The Commission reviewed one section of the plan at a time, thoroughly discussing each in detail and revising the goals and policies intended to serve as the framework.

By the fall of 2002, the Commission succeeded in completing most of the plan sections, with the exception of a suggested new section on community sustainability. Inspired by the relatively recent emergence of the concept of sustainability in city planning, the Commission began the first draft of the community sustainability section of the Plan.

By early 2003, the community sustainability section neared completion. This new section defined sustainability as "creating balance among the environment, the economy and society to ensure that practices and decisions do not compromise the quality of life for future generations." This section begins with the statement that the health of Lakewood's environment and ecosystems is a vital community asset and environmental values, such as clean air and water, wildlife habitats, open space and scenic vistas are critical to the health and quality of life of the City's residents. Moreover, the introduction provided for the protection of those values and establishment of public policies to promote sustainable growth.

The overall goal for community sustainability in Lakewood under the Comprehensive Plan is to "promote community stewardship of natural and manmade resources and environments" within the four identified areas of environment and ecosystems, community development, buildings and living patterns. For each of these individual areas, the Plan establishes specific policies to assist in achieving the identified goals. First, in the preservation of the environment and ecosystems, the Plan sets forth the policy of preserving, expanding and restoring natural habitats for wildlife and plants native to the region.

Second, the subsection on community development establishes the policies of conserving open land by encouraging mixed use development; conserving water and improving water quality; supporting multiple modes of transportation; promoting energy efficiency including increased use of renewal energy sources, such as solar and wind power; and the planning and design of communities to promote convenient mass transit.

Third, the building subsection encourages the design and construction of energy efficient buildings to reduce overall energy demand; and designing policies to encourage use of renewable energies and resources with low energy use materials to create "green buildings." Additionally, in addressing living patterns, the Plan proclaims the policy of promoting environmental sustainability within neighborhoods by educating and encouraging citizens to adopt environmentally friendly practices.

Finally, the sustainability section recognizes the importance of regional cooperation in achieving sustainability and cooperating with neighboring jurisdictions to maintain connections between open space areas and coordinating, preserving and maintaining wildlife habitats and corridors.

With the adoption of the Lakewood Comprehensive Plan goals and policies by City Council in early 2003, the Commission next proceeded to the task of preparing action steps to implement the broad goals and policies set forth in the Plan. In the meantime, Lakewood Planning Commissioners and staff were invited to speak on sustainability at a sustainability working group of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; and a statewide forum on sustainability at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.

The next article in this series will describe the specific steps taken by Lakewood to strive towards sustainability since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan.

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