Which projects and developers are you referring to when you say "developers have an increasing incentive to push even harder for projects?"  It is my understanding that the City of Lakewood's planning process for new construction follows a set of regulations and guidelines.  When these guidelines are met, projects are approved.  The timeline for the permit process is standard.  Setting the number of high density approval permits annually would not change the time it takes for any one of those permit to be approved. Flooding the planning departments with permits right now will only slow down the staff in all the approvals.     

When you mention the "NIMBYs," I assume you are referring to people with Colorado as their backyard?  Colorado is the "backyard" of 5 million residents that I imagine have some reason why they prefer Colorado to other higher population states.