On Saturday morning, Liveable Kirkland members joined the CKC Trail Volunteers crew to help remove invasive plants and ensure new plantings are healthy and getting sunlight. The work area was right next to Rotary Central Station, where we host Coffee Outside every Wednesday.

We’ll be back to work on the trail on July 25th, and there are opportunities on other weekends as well - click the link below!

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

Totem Lake SIS Discussion

Staff provided a recap of what planning work has been done over the last few years in the Southern Industrial Subarea, what the City Council has called for, and what’s left to do. Commissioners asked clarifying questions about how long it will take to complete a subarea plan in a variety of scenarios. The remaining parts of the sub-area plan are scheduled to take a full year (2027), but staff acknowledged that it is a tight timeline. It also requires budget for outside consultants as written, which is not guaranteed to be available.

The original Community Amendment Request from 2022 would have affected just 5 parcels west of the CKC in the area, with a requested capacity for 1,200 homes and 30,000 sq ft of retail. The City has done high-level analysis for that level of growth, but any proposed projects would still need to do a detailed project-level environmental impact analysis. This high-detail step is where specific environmental and traffic impacts are identified and mitigations are decided. Reducing the scope of re-zoning could make the project shorter and possible to do in-house.

The possibility of a Planned Action Ordinance was also discussed. A PAO would provide the level of detail normally present in a project-level environmental analysis, but for a larger area instead of just one parcel/project. This would allow for a higher level of detail upfront, rather than stopping at the high level and waiting for a developer to take it to the finish line. Under a PAO, developers won’t have to wait for the long review process (and possible appeals) required by environmental review, because all of that will be done in advance. This can increase developer confidence and interest, but will require an update to the initial comp plan policy calling for a subarea plan.

Overall, there are still multiple paths that could be taken, with different balances of housing, business retention, and other priorities. Commissioners were interested in seeing this plan through, but stressed the importance of keeping momentum, and developing a plan that will be built out. It’s up to the City Council to pick a direction for how to proceed.

July Meetings

The July 9th meeting of the Planning Commission has been canceled.

The July 23rd meeting will be remote only due to renovations at City Hall. Public comment can still be given over Zoom, or the Rose Hill meeting room at City Hall will be available for members of the public to use for public comment and watching the meeting.

The plan for the meeting is to hold a public hearing about housing incentives for faith-based properties (as prompted by state law).

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!)