Council Member Todd Rogers

11/10/2026

Another great Fest-of-All celebrating everyone who makes Lakewood a great and welcoming place to live, work, and visit. Many thanks to our team and all who helped to make it happen.

03/10/2026

You would think that after the pitched battle that we went thorough trying to create our own Lakewood Unified School District 25 years ago, the leaders of the LBUSD would have remembered the importance of timely and collaborative communication. Instead, our families and school staff are ambushed with an announcement that is all but a done deal. I saw it posted on FB before the city got a courtesy call. The City of Lakewood is an amazing partner and supporter of LBUSD. It’s a shame that this is once again a one way street.

I understand budgetary and enrollment pressures but to be clear, I do not support the closure of Gompers and the displacement of our students and families. One of the very foundations upon which our community was built is neighborhood schools. The Gompers neighborhood will now be denied this right.

Let’s work together to figure out how our public schools and districts can do better so we can keep them economically viable.

02/10/2026

An important clarification about the church property re-zoning requirement imposed by the state of California. Way too much bad info out there about this issue.

The City has seen a lot of misinformation about the proposed State-mandated rezoning of church properties.

We understand people’s concerns but wanted to clarify a few things.

1) Neither the City nor the State is making a Church do anything it doesn’t want to do with its property. There are no current plans or proposals to build housing on sites, nor is the City aware of any future plans in that regard.

2) The rezoning of these properties will not prompt any action that isn’t already within the prerogative of church-owned properties. The building of housing on a Church-owned property is and will still be a decision of the Church. Notably, if a Church did want to build affordable housing right now, under State Law it is entitled by right to do so.

3) The State is making the City rezone these properties under the threat of decertifying our housing element which would result in financial fines and the loss of land use decision-making such that developers could build essentially whatever they want with very little City say-so.

4) Most importantly, if a church does not want to build housing on its property, this action will not force them to do so.

Lakewood has always been supportive of its religious institutions and remains so.

While the City recognizes the need for more housing across the State, we think the way the State has gone about it has unduly stripped the community of its role in regulating such things.

In that regard, the State-mandated rezoning of these properties is regrettable but necessary for Lakewood to keep its Housing Element in compliance and preserve as much local control over future development as possible.

30/09/2026

LASD press release about pursuit/traffic collision last night on Candlewood at Premiere. We appreciate our deputies.

25/09/2026

Hope to see you there!!

23/09/2026

Hello everyone. Here are some important updates about roundabout construction activity on Studebaker and Palo Verde. Thanks!

http://LakewoodCA.gov/roundabouts

21/09/2026

A big thank you to all who supported our annual Lakewood Education Foundation Golf Tournament. Grateful for my partner Steve Croft (co-founder of LEF/Former Mayor) and our loyal sponsors, volunteers, and golfers who come out every year in support. Our Recreation and Community Services staff again did an amazing job and I appreciate my council colleagues, school board members business leaders, LASD partners, etc. who all helped to make the day so special.

A special treat was the high school competition between Lakewood HS, Mayfair HS, Artesia HS, and St. Joseph/St. John Bosco HS.

Because of everyone's support, we will be awarding well over $50,000 in classroom grants this year.

I hope to see everyone out for LEF golf again next year on 09/17/2027! Thank you everyone!!

p.s. Special thanks to VM Arellano for taking the photos that I forgot to take.

17/09/2026

So, I was sent a copy of this post/message. The claim is that the City of Lakewood is re-zoning all church properties in the city so we can build housing for the homeless. It even includes a specific number of housing units that we plan to build at a particular church site. To be clear, this is completely false.

Below is my previous explanation of the real reason for the re-zoning. Please reach out if you hear any more outrageous claims. Thanks.

FROM PREVIOUS POST:

Hello everyone. Many of you have recently received notices about the re-zoning of a church property in your neighborhood. These notices were sent to a 300 ft. radius around 10 of these church sites.

The notices describe a re-zoning from low density to med-high density and from single family to multi-family for residential development.

As with many other housing issues, this is part of a state mandate that we re-zone these properties as part of our approved and required housing element which dictates that we adjust our zoning to accommodate about 4,500 new housing units in Lakewood. Our housing element will be de-certified if we do not make these zoning changes.

I am told that there are currently no medium or high density developments proposed for these church sites, however, it is possible they might be in the future.

We have no choice but to change our ordinance now and this process will begin with the Planning Commission meeting on October 1st (as mentioned in the notice).

You all know where I stand on these state mandates and how I believe that these decisions are best left to local governments but that is not the world in which we live. As we have seen in other cities, defying these state mandates has resulted in dire consequences. There are some recent examples from Orange County that illustrate what I'm talking about.

Lakewood supports the responsible development of additional housing and we are doing just that. We also understand, however, the ongoing impacts that many of these "by-right" developments are having on our existing neighborhoods.

We will continue to fight for the restoration of local control, seek mitigations to increased density where we can, and do everything possible to protect our current residents while welcoming those who have long dreamed of being able to live in our great city.

I will continue to provide updates on this issue, and others, as they become available. Thanks all!

14/09/2026

Hello everyone. Many of you have recently received notices about the re-zoning of a church property in your neighborhood. These notices were sent to a 300 ft. radius around 10 of these church sites.

The notices describe a re-zoning from low density to med-high density and from single family to multi-family for residential development.

As with many other housing issues, this is part of a state mandate that we re-zone these properties as part of our approved and required housing element which dictates that we adjust our zoning to accommodate about 4,500 new housing units in Lakewood. Our housing element will be de-certified if we do not make these zoning changes.

I am told that there are currently no medium or high density developments proposed for these church sites, however, it is possible they might be in the future.

We have no choice but to change our ordinance now and this process will begin with the Planning Commission meeting on October 1st (as mentioned in the notice).

You all know where I stand on these state mandates and how I believe that these decisions are best left to local governments but that is not the world in which we live. As we have seen in other cities, defying these state mandates has resulted in dire consequences. There are some recent examples from Orange County that illustrate what I'm talking about.

Lakewood supports the responsible development of additional housing and we are doing just that. We also understand, however, the ongoing impacts that many of these "by-right" developments are having on our existing neighborhoods.

We will continue to fight for the restoration of local control, seek mitigations to increased density where we can, and do everything possible to protect our current residents while welcoming those who have long dreamed of being able to live in our great city.

I will continue to provide updates on this issue, and others, as they become available. Thanks all!