Did you know that the City of Lakewood has over 7,400 acres of parkland, representing approximately 25% of all land within the city? Lakewood has 47 acres of parks and open space for every 1,000 residents. According to the Trust for Public Land, 89% of Lakewood residents reside within a 10-minute walk to parks and open space.
In 2025, Lakewood City Council adopted revised parkland dedication land-use requirements to increase the city’s park capacity to serve new residents at a level equal to the level of parks serving existing residents. The recently revised regulations accomplish this by requiring residential developers to dedicate land to serve as park or open space, complete improvements in lieu of dedicating land, pay a fee in lieu of dedicating land, or a combination of the three.
The city hired a consultant, Norris Design, to engage with the community and assess parkland in the city. The Park Land Dedication Final Report provides the results of this study and mapping that indicates areas of need of parkland in Lakewood.
Residential developers seeking more information about the development process, please review the city’s Property Development process and engage staff in an initial consultation.
Background
The city first adopted the parkland dedication requirements in 1983, and they have been revised and updated numerous times since then. On Feb. 24, 2025, City Council again revised Parkland Dedication requirements (O-2025-07) to ensure they are delivering the appropriate amount of parkland or fees/improvements to residents’ access to the outdoors.
Zoning is used by local governments to regulate the uses and/or development forms of land to provide property owners with an expectation of how areas will develop and change over time. Zoning varies from community to community and over the years zoning laws need to be updated. Lakewood is also in the process of updating its Zoning Ordinance.
While Lakewood’s parkland dedication ordinance impacts land use, it is not a zoning regulation. Parkland dedication is not designed to protect privately owned vacant land that is sometimes referred to as “green space” or reduce housing density.
The following are highlights from Parkland Dedication requirements (O-2025-07):
- Required amount of parkland dedication: Developers must dedicate 3 acres for a community park and 2.5 acres for a neighborhood park, for a total of 5.5 acres, for every 1,000 residents expected to live in the new development or work with staff to determine park need in the area and a combination of land, improvements, or fee in lieu.
- Reaffirms that the city determines how a developer meets the requirements: The city has always made the determination on whether a developer could dedicate parkland or pay a fee instead, known as a “fee in lieu.” This ensures that the city isn’t accepting property that is difficult to turn into a park or is costly to maintain. It also provides a way for the city to receive fees to provide funding for purchasing larger pieces of property. The revisions also added the option for developers to make important park and open space improvements or provide neighborhood parkland that is privately maintained with a public access easement.
- Sets the city’s preference for land dedications: The revisions state that the city’s preference is to receive land dedicated for parkland in areas of need, while the revisions also provide a range of options in order to best meet the needs of residents and to use city funds effectively.
- Requires the amount for the fee in lieu to be set annually: City Council will review the fee each year for a potential increase based on market evaluations. The amount that the city requires the developer to pay instead of dedicating land has increased over the years, most recently in June 2024 to $432,727 per acre.
- Provides more options to address targeted needs: The city has the option of requiring the developer to dedicate land, pay a fee instead of land (known as “fee in lieu”), make improvements instead of a land dedication, or a combination of the three, which is new to the regulations. These improvements in lieu of dedicating land means the city can require the developer to build a community garden, public plaza or similar open space amenities. This option provides an innovative approach to meet the unique parkland needs of a specific population served by the new residential development.
- Prioritizes protection of sensitive habitats: City Council added a requirement that makes it a priority for the money generated from fees in lieu to be spent on buying and preserving ecologically sensitive habitats.
- Focuses on obtaining parkland in parts of Lakewood lacking enough parks: The revisions state that the city’s priority is to obtain new parkland in areas of the city lacking parkland and open space.
- Reaffirms that most single-family house renovations won’t require parkland dedications: The parkland dedication requirements will be activated through land-use steps necessary for building multiple units and large or more complex developments, which means most single-family homeowners making changes to their properties won’t be required to meet parkland dedication requirements.
- Exempts affordable housing developments: City Council exempted new developments that are building 100 percent of their units as affordable from the parkland dedication requirement.
- Imposes new transparency requirements: City Council set several new reporting requirements:
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- Provides a process for residents to give input on where and how the fee in lieu funds will be spent when seeking to meet the park and open space needs for residents in new developments.
- Requires a report to be provided to City Council and the public in January each year on how the fees in lieu have been spent.
- Calls for City Council to assess in 12 months how the current revisions have functioned.
- Publishes on the city’s website each of the decisions by the director of Community Resources Department to accept any portion of the parkland dedication requirement as a fee in lieu.
- Creates a review process for the director’s decisions on certain projects:
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- For projects where 100 percent fee in lieu is accepted and where the development’s projected population will be 50 residents or more, the director’s determination must be published on the city’s website, and the director must provide 30 days for property owners and adult residents located within 500 feet of the project to sign a petition.
- If 20 percent or more of those property owners and adult residents sign the petition, the Board of Adjustment must schedule a quasi-judicial hearing to review the director’s determination to accept 100 percent fee in lieu.
- The quasi-judicial hearing must be conducted similar to a court hearing. This means public testimony is limited to occurring only within that public hearing, and communications about the case cannot happen outside that public hearing.
Timeline
- June 2023 – City began working to update the parkland dedication requirements including hiring a consultant “to reimagine park and open space dedications requirements.”
- March 2024 – Citizen petition began to repeal and replace city’s parkland dedication ordinance.
- April 2024 – City staff shared preliminary recommendations with City Council for modifications to the parkland dedication ordinance.
- June 2024 – Community Resources director increased by 70 percent the fee in lieu per acre that developers are required to pay instead of dedicating parkland. Other work on updating the ordinance put on hold because of the citizen petition.
- September 2024 – Citizen-initiative petition filed with the City Clerk’s Office to repeal and replace the city’s parkland dedication ordinance. The City Clerk’s Office determined the petition had a sufficient number of valid signatures.
- November 2024 – Consultant provided report(PDF, 59MB) and mapping of the city’s parkland dedication, and staff drafted proposed updated ordinance.
- November 2024 – City Council required either to adopt the citizen-initiated ordinance as written or send it to a vote of Lakewood residents. City Council adopted the ordinance as is.
- December 2024 – The citizen-initiated ordinance went into effect, and more than 100 property owners including those of single-family homes are required to dedicate part of their property as parkland under the new citizen-initiated ordinance. The city issued no building permits because no proposed project was able to meet the parkland dedication requirements under the new ordinance.
- January 2025 – Because of the negative consequences from the citizen-initiated ordinance, City Council voted unanimously to direct staff to place a revised ordinance on the agenda for first reading at the council’s Jan. 27 meeting. This allowed City Council to make changes to the requirements that were necessary to protect the property, health, welfare, peace or safety of Lakewood.
- February 2025 – City Council conducted two public hearings on repealing and replacing the citizen-initiated ordinance. City Council unanimously approved a revised ordinance, replacing the citizen-initiated requirements.
For an accessibility copy of any case, contact crinfo@lakewood.org.
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