Enjoying Liveable Kirkland events but wish that they came with more stickers? We hear you loud and clear! We’re excited to be trying something new this year and offering “membership” perks for our regular attendees.

Think these stickers, designed by Liveable Kirkland members Erika and Jay and featuring beloved Kirkland icons, look rad? A sheet can be yours, just by showing up for your second Liveable Kirkland event in 2026!

(Where you can also sign up to get this weekly newsletter on the latest in Kirkland happenings, straight to your inbox!)

Liveable Kirkland is a proud sponsor of the Juneteenth Celebration organized by Eastside for All in Kirkland.

Organized by local Black leaders, the Juneteenth event is happy to welcome back Mr. Delbert Richardson and his national award-winning Unspoken Truths Traveling Museum.

Learn about the significance of Juneteenth, enjoy delicious food, shop from Black-owned businesses, and connect with community organizations. Come celebrate!

Featuring DJ AmberLove | Free and open to all

East King County Black graduates will be honored at the event - graduates sign up here

Budget Study Session

Council had a retreat covering the city’s finances last Friday, May 29th. While the city did not broadcast or record the retreat, they did publish the initial staff reports. The city’s 2025 general fund revenues finished $7.2 million above budget and the 2025 expenditures finished $6.6 million below budget primarily due to strong tax revenues, investment earnings, and savings from employee vacancies. The preliminary 2027-28 general fund forecast projects a gap of $6.4 million as expenditure growth outpaces revenue growth. Current service levels can be maintained with no new revenues using the extra funds from 2025-26, but the deficit would grow for 2029-30. Key causes for projected expenditure growth include: rising salary and benefit costs, increasing internal service charges partially due to oil/gas and computer replacement, and future operating costs associated with the Kraken Iceplex & Kirkland Community Center. One option staff presented to council is to increase the sales tax by 0.1%, as authorized by the State in 2025 via HB 2015.This would increase revenues by about $4.2 million per year which could be used for public safety related expenditures.

Community Center Purchase

Originally listed for $7.31 million, the now former LDS church property in the Kingsgate neighborhood (13220 NE 132nd Street) will likely be purchased by the City of Kirkland for $10 million. The church received multiple offers, including some exceeding the city’s final offer. The seller agreed to a lower price because the city proposed to use the building for community benefit. Council needs to pick the exact funding sources, but it’s clear that the money to fund the purchase will come from unfunding or deferring other city projects. This includes the city choosing to not invest $5 million in partnership with Lake Washington School district to expand the Kamiakin Gym expansion. The church property will fulfill some of the same purposes.

Houghton Village Sale Update

On Tuesday the City Council will have the opportunity to declare the Houghton Village property as surplus to the city’s needs and reauthorize the sale of the property. The Council directed the City Manager to sell the property in February, but the city has not yet selected a broker. The property is expected to be listed in June. The city originally tried to find a partner to develop the site for affordable housing, but was unable to find one.

Central Way Bike Improvements

The city has been approved for a grant of $1.5 million from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board Complete Streets program for bike lanes on Central Way near Peter Kirk Park. Staff are asking the council to allocate additional money as the $1.5 million from the grant only covers about half of the transportation project’s costs. Staff originally proposed a few options:

The trees mentioned here were largely removed earlier this year due to public safety concerns. However, their roots and stumps remain. Staff are recommending alternative 2 because it provides a more comfortable, functional, and future-oriented multimodal facility compared to alternative 3. Alternative 3 minimizes the impact to the existing park fence line but it results in a more constrained design with narrower facilities that reduce user comfort and limit long-term flexibility and providing only “modest” savings. Staff are recommending using money from the Transportation Benefits District (TBD) contingency reserves to fund the remainder of the transportation part of the combined transportation-parks project. As a stand alone project, the parks portion is expected to cost up to $1.56M, but under the joint approach it’s expected to cost between $1.09M and $1.29M. Additionally, the current CIP expects the roots of the removed trees to be left in place until 2029 when the underdrain system is scheduled for replacement. Staff are also proposing creating terraced seating overlooking future pickleball courts. The terraced seating wouldn’t be built until additional funding is secured but would be included in the design.

Join Liveable Kirkland in a conversation about our city’s present and future! We have an active community on Discord and Facebook and we’d love it if you joined in too : )

(And if you add a picture you took to #photos on Discord it might get featured in next week’s issue!)