Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, I want to get to a very interesting
local story now. I am pleased to be joined on
the show for the first time, the first time joining
me on Kawa Wendy Strom. Wendy is the mayor of Lakewood,
and I reached out to Wendy to ask if she
would be willing to join us to help us understand,
(00:21):
I'll just go with this one headline from the Denver
is that Lakewood City Council approves reconfiguring of single family zoning.
And part of the reason I wanted the two main
reasons I wanted to mention this. One, this kind of
thing is always exceptionally controversial within a community. And two
there you may see more of this because there is
(00:42):
a big push in Colorado to do things that allow
the creation of more housing, to bring down the price
of housing, at least in some areas, so that there
is more quote unquote affordable housing for people who want
to move to the state of Colorado. So, with that
long introduction and Mayor Wendy Strom, welcome to KAO. Wait,
thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Here, good Marning, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm very glad to I think I touched on this
already and it's probably obvious, but anything you want to
elaborate on in the problem that you are aiming to
solve with this change in zoning, Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you. I would say there's actually two primary challenges
that we're trying to address through this zoning. One of
them was to add guard rails that will protect our
neighbors neighborhoods from a new state law that actually bans
a limit on unrelated adults living in one home. The
way that our zoning is currently set up, it would
(01:37):
be possible for someone to come in and build in
some of our own districts up to an eighteen thousand
square foot home, which, as you can imagine, you know,
with average the home sizes in like Wood being significantly
smaller than that, there's not a market, much of a
market for an eighteen thousand square foot home to be
built in a normal circumstance. But when you introduce an
(02:04):
inability to limit the number of adults that live in
the home, you start to see the possibility of some
of these mega homes or MC mansions, whatever we want
to call them, that could theoretically house you know, a dozen,
two dozen and three dozen. Who knows people in one
large structure, so that was one of the things that
we had addressed in the zoning code, reducing that maximum
(02:27):
size to five thousand or five thousand, depending on a
couple of different factors. Then separately, it was to really
address the lack of diversity of housing stock across our
city that's contributed to this suffordability crisis that we're seeing,
and you know, young people and or older adults not
being able to have a lot of options that are
(02:48):
on the smaller side of things like condos, townhouses smaller
than a two thousand square foot home footprint. Is when
I'm with that one to you, i'd say the.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, so I hadn't heard that first one before. That's
very interesting, So just tell me just a little bit
more and then we'll get back to the main topic
on that five thousand square foot limit. What's the story
with that? And can and can one appeal to go
over five thousand if one wants to.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh, that is a really good question and not one
that I'm prepared to answer on the fly this morning,
but it is if I recall correctly this I believe
we addressed on our September eighth council meeting, it would
be four thousand square feet or less if it was
a triplex or smaller five thousand square feet I believe
(03:42):
if it were four units, but that that I don't
know that I remember all of those numbers, specially okacfully correctly.
So we'll just leave that is here's where we think
we landed.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay. So the controversial part of this, clearly would be
that in nabors that are currently zoned for single family
that now there could be a duplex, triplex, quad plex
in there, and a lot of folks have concerns about
over that changing the character the neighborhood, adding to traffic issues,
parking issues. I mean, I assume this was the biggest
(04:16):
part of the controversy surrounding this, right.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It is definitely to your point of not hearing about
the story of the guardrails in the eighteen thousand square
foothouse that has been lost in a lot of these conversations.
It's it's more than just what we what we're calling
a single family home. But the reality of it is
we already have across our city accessory dwelling units where
(04:42):
you've got two families living on a property, group homes,
day care facilities. You know, whether it be for children
or adults. You know in a number of different ways
that you actually have multiple families potentially already residing at
least for part of the day together. This is something
that we don't currently have quote unquote single family home
(05:05):
only zone district and single family home zoning isn't being eliminated.
Opportunities or choices, I should say, are being increased, but
there are also guardrails on that that are not necessarily
talked about as much either, and that is part of
the fact that we actually there's a fifty percent open
(05:27):
space requirement on a lot. So I actually sat down
and I did the math with my own home, Like, theoretically,
if my neighbors were to sell their house tomorrow, someone else,
a developer, per se bought it, what could that look like,
what could be living next to me? And what I
actually found, based on the size of my lot, which
was an average size, there isn't a lot more that
(05:52):
someone could build on my particular lot. We could potentially
add an ADU and accessory going in it if we had,
you know, a young person or maybe a parent that
we wanted to help take care as it's close to us,
but it really didn't shame. It doesn't change much what
would be in my in my area. So I think
(06:12):
that's really important to notice that there's actually there are
curbs in place, and we're not There are a lot
of soundbites that go with us that are actually easier.
You know, this is not those in governments that are
easier to say and understand than really the complexity of
the actual issues.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And that's part of the reason I've got you on
the show and we've got just three or four minutes left.
So did you just say, just as an example, that
if you had a half an acre lot that you're
only allowed to build on a quarter acre of it?
Is that what you said?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Like, did you well, what it is? Yeah, what it
is is there is a fifty percent open space requirement.
And that open space so that would be you know,
the size of the structure we have to add in,
like those driveways included with that, garage would be included
with that. And then when you add these things together
(07:04):
and other structures that maybe on the property as well,
when you add these things together, it still needs to
have fifty percent open space. And so that is one
other thing. It's not like someone could buy a lot
and just build from one side to another on the
entire lot. There is still a limit required for maintaining
(07:25):
open space on that lot.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So it sounds like, especially if you're talking about a
typical Lakewood size lot, and these are not mostly massive
parcels of land, right if you're talking about a quarter acre,
a third of an acre, maybe half an acre is
probably not tons of lots that are bigger than that,
maybe in the little the more rural corners, but it
would be hard to build a multi family thing that's
(07:49):
bigger than two or three units probably on something that big,
maybe four if they were really small, correct.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
In most cases. In fact, Houston put this into place
back in eye it was twenty two thousand and seven,
and what they found was that the areas it is
a trickle, you know, zoning is not like an overnight change.
In fact, it doesn't even change the way I live
in my home. If I can sell my home, pass
it on that kind of thing, it doesn't change the
(08:19):
way I live in my home. What they did was
they went it back and did a study in Houston,
and I think this was ut Austin that did the study,
and they looked at the change that it happened throughout
the community since two thousand and seven, and what they
found is that where the multi unit homes ended up
being built were on the larger lots with the smaller
(08:41):
homes large.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Right, that makes sense? Okay, just about out of time here.
So what I what I'd like to ask you to
do is to give me your your best prediction as
to how you think these new changes will actually play
out in Lakewood. I'm asking you to guess how you
think this stuff will play out in Lakewood. And I
(09:03):
assume since I don't know if you even voted on this,
I don't know if the mayor votes, but it passed
by a pretty wide margin. I was actually a little
bit surprised by that, which makes me think that the
people who have all the information think that this isn't
nearly as bad as some of the hype out there
has been. So just give me, you know, forty one seconds,
because I like prime numbers on how you think this
(09:25):
will play out.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yes, thank you, Ed. I believe the way that it
would play out is that we would see a slow
trickle of some potential changes here, not all congested in
one particular area. And in fact, I call it gentle density.
We're adding gentle density and places that families want to
(09:47):
see that in doing so, creating smaller structures that actually
will increase the ability for people to either be able
to downsize and stay here in Lakewood where there churches,
where they're family is, or for young people to grow
roots here. Right now, we don't have a lot of
that diversity of housing stock and smaller spaces that young
(10:09):
people can get in or that our older adults can
age into, and that is my hope that we will
start to see that trickle through over the next few years.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Wendy Strom is Mayor of Lakewood. Thank you so much
for spending time with us and helping us, helping us
understand this story. I think listeners got a lot out
of that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I appreciate it, right, Thanks sah all right,
All right, I want to get to a very interesting
local story now. I am pleased to be joined on
the show for the first time, the first time joining
me on Kawa Wendy Strom. Wendy is the mayor of Lakewood,
and I reached out to Wendy to ask if she
would be willing to join us to help us understand,
(00:21):
I'll just go with this one headline from the Denver
is that Lakewood City Council approves reconfiguring of single family zoning.
And part of the reason I wanted the two main
reasons I wanted to mention this. One, this kind of
thing is always exceptionally controversial within a community. And two
there you may see more of this because there is
(00:42):
a big push in Colorado to do things that allow
the creation of more housing, to bring down the price
of housing, at least in some areas, so that there
is more quote unquote affordable housing for people who want
to move to the state of Colorado. So, with that
long introduction and Mayor Wendy Strom, welcome to KAO. Wait,
thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Here, good Marning, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm very glad to I think I touched on this
already and it's probably obvious, but anything you want to
elaborate on in the problem that you are aiming to
solve with this change in zoning, Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you. I would say there's actually two primary challenges
that we're trying to address through this zoning. One of
them was to add guard rails that will protect our
neighbors neighborhoods from a new state law that actually bans
a limit on unrelated adults living in one home. The
way that our zoning is currently set up, it would
(01:37):
be possible for someone to come in and build in
some of our own districts up to an eighteen thousand
square foot home, which, as you can imagine, you know,
with average the home sizes in like Wood being significantly
smaller than that, there's not a market, much of a
market for an eighteen thousand square foot home to be
built in a normal circumstance. But when you introduce an
(02:04):
inability to limit the number of adults that live in
the home, you start to see the possibility of some
of these mega homes or MC mansions, whatever we want
to call them, that could theoretically house you know, a dozen,
two dozen and three dozen. Who knows people in one
large structure, so that was one of the things that
we had addressed in the zoning code, reducing that maximum
(02:27):
size to five thousand or five thousand, depending on a
couple of different factors. Then separately, it was to really
address the lack of diversity of housing stock across our
city that's contributed to this suffordability crisis that we're seeing,
and you know, young people and or older adults not
being able to have a lot of options that are
(02:48):
on the smaller side of things like condos, townhouses smaller
than a two thousand square foot home footprint. Is when
I'm with that one to you, i'd say the.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, so I hadn't heard that first one before. That's
very interesting, So just tell me just a little bit
more and then we'll get back to the main topic
on that five thousand square foot limit. What's the story
with that? And can and can one appeal to go
over five thousand if one wants to.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh, that is a really good question and not one
that I'm prepared to answer on the fly this morning,
but it is if I recall correctly this I believe
we addressed on our September eighth council meeting, it would
be four thousand square feet or less if it was
a triplex or smaller five thousand square feet I believe
(03:42):
if it were four units, but that that I don't
know that I remember all of those numbers, specially okacfully correctly.
So we'll just leave that is here's where we think
we landed.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay. So the controversial part of this, clearly would be
that in nabors that are currently zoned for single family
that now there could be a duplex, triplex, quad plex
in there, and a lot of folks have concerns about
over that changing the character the neighborhood, adding to traffic issues,
parking issues. I mean, I assume this was the biggest
(04:16):
part of the controversy surrounding this, right.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It is definitely to your point of not hearing about
the story of the guardrails in the eighteen thousand square
foothouse that has been lost in a lot of these conversations.
It's it's more than just what we what we're calling
a single family home. But the reality of it is
we already have across our city accessory dwelling units where
(04:42):
you've got two families living on a property, group homes,
day care facilities. You know, whether it be for children
or adults. You know in a number of different ways
that you actually have multiple families potentially already residing at
least for part of the day together. This is something
that we don't currently have quote unquote single family home
(05:05):
only zone district and single family home zoning isn't being eliminated.
Opportunities or choices, I should say, are being increased, but
there are also guardrails on that that are not necessarily
talked about as much either, and that is part of
the fact that we actually there's a fifty percent open
(05:27):
space requirement on a lot. So I actually sat down
and I did the math with my own home, Like, theoretically,
if my neighbors were to sell their house tomorrow, someone else,
a developer, per se bought it, what could that look like,
what could be living next to me? And what I
actually found, based on the size of my lot, which
was an average size, there isn't a lot more that
(05:52):
someone could build on my particular lot. We could potentially
add an ADU and accessory going in it if we had,
you know, a young person or maybe a parent that
we wanted to help take care as it's close to us,
but it really didn't shame. It doesn't change much what
would be in my in my area. So I think
(06:12):
that's really important to notice that there's actually there are
curbs in place, and we're not There are a lot
of soundbites that go with us that are actually easier.
You know, this is not those in governments that are
easier to say and understand than really the complexity of
the actual issues.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And that's part of the reason I've got you on
the show and we've got just three or four minutes left.
So did you just say, just as an example, that
if you had a half an acre lot that you're
only allowed to build on a quarter acre of it?
Is that what you said?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Like, did you well, what it is? Yeah, what it
is is there is a fifty percent open space requirement.
And that open space so that would be you know,
the size of the structure we have to add in,
like those driveways included with that, garage would be included
with that. And then when you add these things together
(07:04):
and other structures that maybe on the property as well,
when you add these things together, it still needs to
have fifty percent open space. And so that is one
other thing. It's not like someone could buy a lot
and just build from one side to another on the
entire lot. There is still a limit required for maintaining
(07:25):
open space on that lot.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So it sounds like, especially if you're talking about a
typical Lakewood size lot, and these are not mostly massive
parcels of land, right if you're talking about a quarter acre,
a third of an acre, maybe half an acre is
probably not tons of lots that are bigger than that,
maybe in the little the more rural corners, but it
would be hard to build a multi family thing that's
(07:49):
bigger than two or three units probably on something that big,
maybe four if they were really small, correct.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
In most cases. In fact, Houston put this into place
back in eye it was twenty two thousand and seven,
and what they found was that the areas it is
a trickle, you know, zoning is not like an overnight change.
In fact, it doesn't even change the way I live
in my home. If I can sell my home, pass
it on that kind of thing, it doesn't change the
(08:19):
way I live in my home. What they did was
they went it back and did a study in Houston,
and I think this was ut Austin that did the study,
and they looked at the change that it happened throughout
the community since two thousand and seven, and what they
found is that where the multi unit homes ended up
being built were on the larger lots with the smaller
(08:41):
homes large.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Right, that makes sense? Okay, just about out of time here.
So what I what I'd like to ask you to
do is to give me your your best prediction as
to how you think these new changes will actually play
out in Lakewood. I'm asking you to guess how you
think this stuff will play out in Lakewood. And I
(09:03):
assume since I don't know if you even voted on this,
I don't know if the mayor votes, but it passed
by a pretty wide margin. I was actually a little
bit surprised by that, which makes me think that the
people who have all the information think that this isn't
nearly as bad as some of the hype out there
has been. So just give me, you know, forty one seconds,
because I like prime numbers on how you think this
(09:25):
will play out.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yes, thank you, Ed. I believe the way that it
would play out is that we would see a slow
trickle of some potential changes here, not all congested in
one particular area. And in fact, I call it gentle density.
We're adding gentle density and places that families want to
(09:47):
see that in doing so, creating smaller structures that actually
will increase the ability for people to either be able
to downsize and stay here in Lakewood where there churches,
where they're family is, or for young people to grow
roots here. Right now, we don't have a lot of
that diversity of housing stock and smaller spaces that young
(10:09):
people can get in or that our older adults can
age into, and that is my hope that we will
start to see that trickle through over the next few years.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Wendy Strom is Mayor of Lakewood. Thank you so much
for spending time with us and helping us, helping us
understand this story. I think listeners got a lot out
of that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I appreciate it, right, Thanks sah all right,
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.