Lakewood, considering new gas station limit, will decide whether 52 is enough in a city of 156,000

Are 52 gas stations enough for Lakewood’s 156,000 residents?

It’s a question that leaders in Colorado’s fifth-largest city are seriously asking, with the City Council teeing up a proposed ordinance that would severely restrict how many new gas stations could prime their pumps in this western suburb. It’s heading for a final vote early next year.

The measure would also throttle the number of new car washes, which a city memo cites for excessive water use and pollution.

The proposal passed on an initial vote Dec. 9 and will land in front of the council — to either approve, amend or table — on Jan. 13.

“The idea is to be thinking of the future,” said Lakewood Councilman Jacob LaBure, who brought the issue to the council after hearing concerns from constituents about noxious emissions and chemical runoff from gas stations. “Land use is a long game, so you have to think about it long-term.”

Lakewood’s ordinance comes after Louisville became the first city in Colorado to limit the number of filling stations, putting in place a hard cap of six for the city of 20,000 in March of last year. Denver has been mulling a similar effort — but instead of a cap, the Mile High City would mandate a quarter-mile separation between new gas stations and existing petrol stations and rail transit stations.

The Denver Planning Board will take up the measure at a hearing on Wednesday. It will vote on a recommendation on whether the Denver City Council should adopt the new policy.

Lakewood’s measure would go further than Denver’s proposal by requiring a half-mile separation between a new gas station and those already in operation. It would also reduce the potential areas in the city where a station could open through zoning restrictions.

New stations would be required to offer at least three electric vehicle charging stations, one of which would have to be equipped with the most rapid charging technology.

Car washes are targeted by the ordinance, too. It calls for the same half-mile separation from any existing car wash in the city. Lakewood has 27 car washes.

“It will extremely limit how many gas stations and car washes can be built (in Lakewood),” LaBure said.

Paul Rice, Lakewood’s manager of development and review, said the city went through a cycle several years ago in which no fewer than seven applications for new filling stations were submitted. Some residents, he said, point to the crush of gas stations at three corners of West Colfax Avenue and Kipling Street as an example of excess and poor planning.

“Some of these stations are close to neighborhoods,” Rice said.

The ordinance’s electric charger mandate is meant to address a perceived shortage of such equipment in the city, he said.

“We’re starting to realize the lack of electric vehicle infrastructure in Lakewood,” Rice said.

This month, a Boston-based association of environmental organizations reported that Colorado took the lead in electric vehicle sales in the nation by market share earlier this year, edging out California. EVs made up 25.3% of new vehicles sold in Colorado in the third quarter while California was second, with electric vehicles accounting for 24.3% of new car sales.

While electric vehicle sales nationally have slowed this year, an increasing number of cities across the country are wondering what the future of gasoline-powered vehicles is — and enacting laws to limit them. Petaluma, California, north of San Francisco, was the first U.S. city to restrict new gas stations in March 2021.

Grier Bailey, the executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, said Lakewood and some other cities overstate the environmental impacts of gas stations and car washes.

“(Enclosed) car washes basically are required to generally be efficient in recycling water, and there are pretty stringent rules around recovery for chemicals,” Bailey said. “Generally speaking, car washes use less water than someone washing their car in their driveway.”

And gas stations, he said, are also subject to stringent rules.

“Suffice it to say, the penalties for violating fuel formulation or vapor recovery systems are severe,” Bailey said, noting the maximum $15,000 fine that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment can levy for a violation. “The families that own stations in the Lakewood community don’t need to be vilified to their neighbors to promote what is essentially a land-use policy.”

Louisville’s 2023 cap hasn’t had much time to play out, said the city’s community development director, Rob Zuccaro. One gasoline station closed following adoption of the ordinance, he said, and an application has come to the city to replace it.