Lakewood, WA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

410, part of Lakewood's Downtown Development Code (Title 18B), governs how new buildings in the Central Business District relate to the street. 310(C). The Linear frontage, the primary type on retail streets, carries zero setback from the street edge and also suits townhouses and row houses. Data tables tied to each frontage type set a 90-foot maximum building height in the CBD, Retail Street, Mixed-Use Street, and Mixed-Use Arterial designations (35 feet in Low-Impact Mixed-Use Streets), a 16-foot minimum first-floor height, and weather protection at least 10 feet deep covering 60 percent of the frontage.

Front entrances must sit along the primary street frontage with 50 percent transparency, and street-level windows need 70 percent transparency in the CBD and on Retail and Festival Streets (60 percent on Mixed-Use Streets). The maximum street setback is generally zero feet for Linear frontage, but the Planning and Public Works (PPW) Director can allow up to 10 feet where the property may be needed for the city's planned right-of-way at full build-out. In the Colonial District Overlay, or where a building does not front a retail street, Green Street Loop, or arterial mixed-use street, the minimum window transparency drops to 50 percent between 30 inches and 8 feet above grade.

These standards apply only inside the mapped Downtown Development Code area; the separate Station District Development Code (Title 18C) and the citywide Land Use and Development Code (Title 18A) each set their own frontage and dimensional rules outside that boundary, so a Lakewood parcel's applicable standard depends on which of the three code areas it sits in.