Glossary Terms

Housing for which, pursuant to a recorded deed restriction in place for not less than 20 years, the occupants cannot be required to pay more than 30 percent of their gross monthly household income on rent/mortgage and utilities, and includes housing that qualifies as “low income,” where the occupant earns 0 percent to 50 percent of AMI; “moderate income,” where the occupant earns 51 percent to 80 percent AMI; and “middle income,” where the occupant earns 81 percent to 120 percent AMI. See also Area Median Income (AMI)

Animal keeping includes equestrian uses, and encompasses livestock including horses, as well as the keeping of other large and small animals as defined in the Zoning Ordinance.

The median household income for the City of Lakewood and Jefferson County, as adjusted by household size, determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and published annually by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). See also Affordable Housing

A form of guaranteed direct cash assistance provided to households in homelessness or at-risk of eviction for a limited duration to supplement a household’s budget to sustain housing.

The process of replacing fossil fuel-based energy sources with electricity in a way that provides overall environmental, economic, and social benefits. This concept emphasizes the transition to electric technologies in order to maximize the benefits of utilizing electricity generated from renewable sources.

A long, channeled depression or trench that receives rainwater runoff (as from a parking lot) and has vegetation (such as grasses, flowering herbs, and shrubs) and organic matter (such as mulch) to slow water infiltration and filter out pollutants. See also Stormwater and Stormwater Management.

The build-to-zone is the area between the minimum and maximum front setbacks. To determine compliance with the build-to-zone requirements, the total width of the building or building portion(s) located in the build-to-zone is divided by the width of the lot or parcel on which the building is located. (As defined in the Lakewood Zoning Ordinance, 17.5.1.6)

Any building, structure, or other intervention that alters the natural landscape for the purpose of serving or accommodating human activity or need. It includes cities, buildings, urban spaces, infrastructure, roads, parks, and any ancillary features that serve these structures.

The opposite of the conventional take-make-waste linear economy in which we live. Creating a circular economy encompasses three principles: eliminating waste and pollution, keeping materials and products in circulation at their highest and best use, and regenerating nature and natural systems (Ellen MacArthur Foundation). Circularity is a measure of the strength of a circular economy.

Property that the city of Lakewood owns, operates, or maintains in service to the community.

Civic Participation refers to the involvement of residents, property owners, business owners, employees, and visitors in City-provided services and programs, in democratic processes, and in other organized initiatives or efforts that contribute to a healthy and thriving community. Through successful Civic Participation, all community members are well-informed and there is shared trust, respect, and responsibility among neighbors and with City officials.

Climate Action refers to strategies and actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation) and/or that enhance resilience (adaptation) to the impacts of climate change. See also Climate Adaptation, Climate Mitigation, and Climate Hazards.

means preparing for new conditions, reducing vulnerabilities, and leveraging changes to create new opportunities for growth and sustainability. See also Climate Action, Climate Mitigation, and Climate Hazards.

means limiting the magnitude and rate of climate change and associated impacts, largely through preventing or reducing GHG emissions. See also Climate Action, Climate Adaptation, and Climate Hazards.

A hazard is a source of potential danger or adverse condition that could harm people or cause property damage. Natural hazards that are influenced by changes in weather patterns have the potential to become more or less likely, severe, or extensive depending on the local impacts of climate change. Lakewood’s climate hazards include drought, extreme temperatures (both hot and cold), flood, hailstorms, lightning, severe winter storms, wildfire, wind, and changes in biodiversity. See also Climate Action, Climate Adaptation, and Climate Mitigation.

On June 3rd, 2022, the Producer Responsibility Program for Statewide Recycling Act, House Bill 22-1355, was signed into law. HB 22-1355 sets up a Producer Responsibility program in Colorado that requires companies selling packaging and paper products to fund a statewide recycling system to recycle those materials. (CDPHE) See also Extended Producer Responsibility Program.

The capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.

A community where all have access to the necessary resources and environment that support a high-quality of life, sense of physical, mental, and emotional security, and overall well-being.

A planning concept where residents have access to housing, jobs, education, food, essential needs, services, and amenities are all organized around the human scale.

An approach to planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining streets that enables safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.

A design approach that takes into consideration factors such as the scale and form of the existing built environment, the existing natural environment, and environmental sustainability, as well as mobility, safety, and economics.

Spending more than 30 percent of a household income on housing and related expenses. See also Affordable Housing (housing product) and Area Median Income.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) defines creative placemaking as a process that combines arts, culture, and design to strengthen communities. It involves partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors using arts and cultural strategies to implement community-led change. It can help address a number of challenges, such as public health—both mental and physical, safety, economic development, bringing attention to community assets and issues, injecting new energy into a place, envisioning new possibilities, and connecting communities. The 40 West ArtLine is one local example of a Creative Placemaking project.

Decarbonization is the removal or reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere. Decarbonization is achieved by switching to usage of low carbon energy sources.

Embodied carbon refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂e) or carbon dioxide equivalent emissions associated with the entire lifecycle of a material or building. This includes all emissions from the extraction and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, construction, and even disposal or recycling of the material or structure.

Equity refers to a state where all people—regardless of individual or group characteristics and background—have the necessary resources, support, opportunity, and environment to lead a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. Equity is the thoughtful, inclusive, and calibrated action that leads to equal outcomes.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach that holds producers responsible for product management through the product’s lifecycle. EPR supports recycling and materials management goals that contribute to a circular economy and can also encourage product design changes that minimize environmental impacts. (CalRecycle) See also Colorado Extended Producer Responsibility.

Gray infrastructure is traditional infrastructure in the built environment such as roads, gutters, drains, pipes, culverts, and retention basins (EPA).

Green infrastructure refers to the interconnected network of natural and semi-natural spaces, such as parks, forests, wetlands, and green spaces, designed to provide ecosystem services and support environmental sustainability. Green Infrastructure aims to mitigate the impacts of urbanization, such as flooding, pollution, and heat islands, while also enhancing biodiversity, recreational opportunities, and overall quality of life for communities. Examples include green roofs, rain gardens, permeable pavement, and urban forests. See also Bioswales and Rain Garden.

The release of any of various gases that contribute to the trapping and buildup of heat in the atmosphere near the Earth’s surface. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons, among others. According to Lakewood’s 2021 GHG inventory, 42% of the city’s emissions result from building energy use, 28% result from transportation, 27% result from consumption-based activities (indirect emissions of products and services), and 2% result from solid waste.

Items that are difficult to process or manage and are not typically included in curbside or single-stream recycling collection services. Hard-to-recycle materials are often bulky, contain hazardous materials, or are made from materials that are difficult to recycle using traditional means.

Household hazardous waste, or HHW, is any chemical or product that can cause serious illness or pose an environmental or health threat if not properly stored, transported, or disposed of. Items can be purchased at home improvement stores, auto parts stores, supermarkets, yard and landscaping nurseries, and other similar places. This includes products that are corrosive or have the potential to react or combust. Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, mineral spirits, and furniture polish are examples of substances that contain corrosive or potentially combustible ingredients. (Rooney Road Recycling Center)

Minimum quality standards for housing developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This standard applies to projects that are funded with Federal funds, such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership (HOME), and Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) programs.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment. (EPA)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic method for evaluating the environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life, from raw material extraction through production, use, and disposal. The goal is to understand the cumulative environmental effects and identify opportunities for improvement.

Privately owned, non-subsidized housing that is rented or sold at fair market value.

Refers to a range of small, lightweight vehicles, driven or operated by users personally. Examples of micromobility devices include bicycles, e-bikes, wheelchairs, scooters, skateboards, strollers, rollerblades, and shared bicycle fleets.

Mixed-use development incorporates two or more types of land uses into the same building (vertical), or in the same general area (horizontal). See also the Lakewood Zoning Code.

As it relates to designing Complete Streets, Modal Hierarchy refers to individual streets within the network that prioritize different modes, depending on their context and purpose. See also Complete Streets.

In urban contexts, multimodal transportation typically refers to the integration of various modes of transportation within a city or metropolitan area to provide efficient, sustainable, and accessible options for residents and commuters. There are numerous ways people can move around their city and larger community — walking, biking, transit, rail, cars, and many variations of these methods of travel.

Naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) refers to residential properties that are “affordable” but are not subsidized by any federal programs; the rents are naturally relatively low compared to the regional housing market.

Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. Decarbonization efforts are needed to reach net zero.

Opportunity and mobility are what allow a community and its residents to achieve social and economic mobility — through the environmental, circumstantial, and programmatic factors that allow residents to develop skills, secure and maintain a job, start a business, find housing, travel between destinations, access healthcare services, and much more.

A single-unit dwelling that is semi-detached or attached to another and typically has a single-story layout.

Rain gardens are small, shallow, sunken areas of plantings that collect stormwater runoff from roofs, streets, and sidewalks. Also known as Bioretention Cells, they are designed to mimic the natural ways water flows over and absorbs into land to reduce stormwater pollution. See also Stormwater, Stormwater Management, and Bioswale.

Risk is the estimated impact that a hazard would have on people, services, facilities, and structures in a community. Risk measures the likelihood of a hazard occurring and resulting in an adverse condition that causes injury or damage. Risk is often expressed in relative terms such as a high, moderate, or low likelihood of sustaining damage above a particular threshold due to occurrence of a specific type of hazard. Risk also can be expressed in terms of potential monetary losses associated with the intensity of the hazard. (from HMP). See also Climate Hazards.

Regenerative sustainability is a process that aims to restore and revitalize the environment and communities through systems and practices that renew their own resources.

Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to support residents, coordinate communication, distribute resources, and reduce carbon pollution while enhancing quality of life. Resilience Hubs can meet a myriad of physical and social goals by utilizing a trusted physical space such as a community center, recreation facility, or multi-family housing building as well as the surrounding infrastructure such as a vacant lot, community park, or local business. (Urban Sustainability Directors Network)

See Micromobility

A greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal that is aligned with the latest climate science to determine a community’s fair share of emissions reductions needed to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Lakewood has a Science-Based Target (SBT) commitment to reduce communitywide GHG emissions by 60.7% below 2018 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050. Interpolating these SBTs to 2040 results in an interim target of reducing emissions by 80.4% below 2018 levels.

In the context of climate change, social vulnerability is a term describing how resilient a community is when confronted by external stresses on human health. It refers to the social and economic characteristics and situation of a person or group that influence their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, or recover from the impact of external stresses, which can range from natural or human-caused disasters to disease outbreaks. Very often, the impacts of climate hazards fall disproportionately on the most underserved or marginalized people in a community—people with lower incomes, children, people who are aging, people with disabilities, and minorities. By reducing social vulnerability, we can decrease both human suffering and economic losses. See also Community Resilience.

The water that is produced in large amounts resulting from large rain and/or snow events. See also Stormwater Management, Bioswale, and Rain Garden.

The collection, conveyance, storage, treatment, and disposal of stormwater runoff to prevent accelerated channel erosion, increased flood damage, and degradation of water quality. See also Stormwater, Bioswale, and Rain Garden.

Sustainability means creating a just and rightful balance between the environment, our economy, and an equitable society. Sustainability is not an end goal, but a holistic approach to decision-making that ensures short term needs do not inequitably outweigh the long-term viability of our planet and future generations who will live on it.

The City of Lakewood’s Sustainable Neighborhoods Program is designed to encourage and support residents in adopting sustainable practices within their neighborhoods. This program focuses on creating a more sustainable and resilient community by leveraging the expertise and passion of residents to implement meaningful projects and programs at the neighborhood level.

Vulnerability describes how exposed or susceptible an asset is to damage. Vulnerability depends on an asset’s construction, contents, and the economic value of its functions. Like indirect damages, the vulnerability of one element of the community is often related to the vulnerability of another. For example, many businesses depend on uninterrupted electrical power. Flooding of an electric substation would affect not only the substation itself but businesses as well. Often, indirect effects can be much more widespread and damaging than direct effects. (from HMP)

Waste diversion refers to strategies and actions aimed at reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills or incinerators. A waste diversion rate is a measure of the performance of a waste diversion program as a percentage. It is calculated by dividing total waste diverted by total waste generated.

Vehicles that produce zero tailpipe exhaust emissions of any criteria pollutant or greenhouse gas under all possible operational modes or conditions. (California Air Resources Board)

Zero Waste means resource conservation through responsible production, conscious consumption, and optimized recovery; achieving at least 90% waste diversion from landfill or incineration by means of reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery activities (combination of Zero Waste International Alliance and GBCI TRUE Zero Waste).

A city or town that has adopted a time-limited Zero Waste goal (90% or greater diversion of community-wide waste from landfill or incineration) and is measuring its progress towards their goal. In 2024, there are roughly 40 Zero Waste communities in the US.