Carrie Makarewicz, Assistant Professor in CU Denver's Department of Urban and Regional Planning was recently interviewed by Denverite for the article, "Lakewood voters approve a 1 percent cap on growth." The article discusses the passage of Lakewood's Ballot Question 200, an anti-growth initiative that caps new home construction to 1% of current housing stock per year, and requires the city council to approve projects with 40 units or more. 

While proponent of the controversial initiative argue that the growth cap with safeguard Lakewood's environment and quality of life and ensure that infrastructure and services are not overstretched, opponents argue that the initiative will make it harder for the city to manage growth, limit the city's ability to promote affordable housing, and raise housing prices in an already gentrifying community. 

Professor Makarewicz has studied anit-growth measures and other artificial caps on development. She argues that growth caps in Boulder have led to a housing shortage as well as increased traffic from people who cannot afford to live there commuting in and out of the city for jobs. “Growth is inevitable. People are having babies. People are living longer. And we cannot say people can’t move to Colorado,” Prof. Makarewicz told Denverite. “It’s just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic to say, ‘We don’t want growth in our community.” 

Read all of Makarewicz's comments and the full Denverite article here.