LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A Lakewood family is looking to raise awareness over what they believe is an unintended consequence of a recently passed citizen-led ordinance .
When Katie Christensen and her family bought their Lakewood home in 2023, the plan was to renovate the house and take advantage of the outdoor space. The home sits on two lots totaling 1.3 acres.
“We were looking for something where we could have our boys do things outdoors all the time,” Christensen said.
The proposed plan for the house is to demolish the current structure and rebuild a two-story home.
“With doing the two stories, we were able to shorten the footprint a bit,” Christensen said.
Then, their permit process hit a snag.
“Their direct words is that we had to dedicate, through an easement, 1,300 square feet of our property back to the city, which equates to about a 37 X 37 ft square, which means then that we can never build on it. We can’t do anything with it. It has to just be open space and comply with the city’s open space requirements from now until the end of time, which is ridiculous,” Christensen said.