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The broad intent of the Lakewood Land Use and Development Code is to implement the City of Lakewood Comprehensive Plan, as now adopted and as may be subsequently amended, hereinafter referred to as the “Comprehensive Plan,” in order to protect and promote the health, safety, and general welfare of Lakewood’s citizens through regulation of the City’s physical development. The regulations included herein work toward overall public goals of providing for orderly development; lessening street congestion; promoting fire safety and public order; and ensuring the adequacy of public infrastructure such as transportation, water, sewer, schools, parks, and storm drainage.

The City strives to honor fundamental property rights and interests of private citizens while serving the overall good of the community as a whole. By their nature, land use regulations call upon government to balance the community’s interests with those of individual property owners. This may result in regulations for the community good that serve to limit the use of property and prevent maximum financial profit for individuals. In allowing reasonable use of property, this effect is not confiscatory and is a proper exercise of the police power afforded to government.

Specifically, this code is intended to:

A. Foster improved relationships and harmony among land uses in order to overcome past, haphazard development patterns.

B. Preserve the qualities of those residential neighborhoods that offer desirable living environments, while encouraging improvement to others whose character undermines good-quality living conditions.

C. Diminish the reliance of current development patterns on automobile use and, over time, integrate multi-modal transportation opportunities into new development and redevelopment to support pedestrians, bicycles, and transit as well as cars.

D. Provide for adequate public facilities and services to support land development.

E. Promote social and economic well-being through integration of aesthetic, environmental, and economic values.

F. Encourage protection of environmentally critical or historically significant resources.

G. Ensure provision of adequate space for housing, commercial/industrial endeavors, and other activities necessary for public welfare.

H. Provide for effective and equitable administration and enforcement of the regulations contained herein. [Ord. 726 § 2 (Exh. B), 2019.]