We in Lakewood often refer to our community as the City of Beautiful Homes. It’s a well-earned title that we work to maintain and build upon. But another focus for our team at City Hall is to keep Lakewood’s status as a place where people can find a home they can afford, whether they are owning or renting. That focus on affordability is important for a city that takes pride in welcoming people from all backgrounds, in all stages of life, and of all incomes.
That focus on affordability takes many shapes for the team at City Hall. One key aspect is maintaining high quality housing stock while continuing to offer diverse housing options. Our planning department continues to implement our affordable housing strategy, which was recognized with a Vibrant NEO Champion Award.
The City recently established a relationship with the
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving quality of life through the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land that provides research, training, education, and policy solutions. The Lincoln Institute selected the City to pilot an exploratory scenario planning toolkit developed for them by Emma Walters and Professor Arnab Chakraborty of the University of Illinois.
Lakewood’s pilot use of this toolkit is helping to develop a national model for legacy cities like Lakewood that are working to address issues impacting their communities, such as market pressures pushing prices higher and raising concerns for affordability. On January 20th, our planning department hosted a workshop session with residents to gather input and insights that will help Lakewood prepare for a variety of future housing demand possibilities. The session was led by the Greater Ohio Policy Center, who has been tapped by the Lincoln Institute to assist in the use of the toolkit. The meeting generated excellent dialogue that will continue to move this work forward, and our planning department will issue a report in the coming months. Thank you to both the Lincoln Institute and the Greater Ohio Policy Center for their guidance and support.
As we work on innovative solutions, the City remains committed to and focused on a dual track of preserving existing affordable units and adding new affordable homes through our policy making and implementation. That includes tying City incentives in new development of scale to including affordable units as well as the City positioning land for affordable projects like recently built owner-occupied infill homes on Plover and Shaw and investing in the repair, rehab, and expansion of affordable housing units like the EDEN project on Nelson Court.
Our approach also includes facilitating private development of new market rate units, which relieves market pressure on our existing housing stock. By working with developers to introduce a diversity of new units – from the infill cluster homes currently under construction on the former gas station on Lake Avenue to larger scale housing projects moving ahead by developers along major corridors like Studio West at West 117th and Detroit and Solove at Bunts and Detroit.
By being innovative with our policies, aggressive with our use of limited public dollars dedicated to this issue, and creative in our work with private developers, Lakewood can continue its tradition of being a place for everyone to find a home.
Mayor Meghan F. George
