Neighborhood Stores and Services

City Staff provided a brief overview of the purpose of this zoning project, which is to allow for more small-scale business and commercial uses in neighborhoods. This was more common before zoning regulations expanded after World War II. Staff was seeking Council feedback on the scope of the project, rather than presenting a list of proposals.

Deputy Mayor Black expressed concerns about the timeline of the project, citing that it may be more complicated than expected. He asked for an extra check-in with the City Council after the Planning Commission discusses the subject, but before they hold the Public Hearing. It's likely that this would extend the project timeline by at least a month due to meeting schedules. The delay could be longer if the City Council calendar is filled up at the end of the year, especially since the City is developing a new budget this year.

Councilmember Falcone suggested having a joint study session with the Planning Commission, but still encouraged the Commission to make an independent recommendation. Mayor Curtis also supported taking extra time compared to the timeline established in the work program.

Councilmember Tymcyzsyn did not support receiving an extra briefing, saying it would amount to the City Council giving a recommendation about what should be in the Planning Commission’s recommendation. He stressed the importance of utilizing the Planning Commission to do deep-dives on topics such as this. Councilmember Arnold agreed with keeping the original timeline and having the Planning Commission do much of the analysis.

Council members noted various concerns to look at during the project, such as expanding the number of allowed business types, parking impacts, outreach and resident feedback, and determining if regulations should vary from place to place (while still examining the city as a whole). The discussion was high-level, so it's hard to say what types of code changes may be controversial among the Council (and so require the extra discussion).

ICE Detention Centers

Initially, the City Council and city staff had intended to enact a moratorium on new detention centers in Kirkland. However, after doing some research city staff found:

While other local jurisdictions’ codes operate where they must list uses that are prohibited, Kirkland’s code works differently, where only uses that are listed as allowed are allowed and other uses are prohibited by default. Council member Falcone made a motion to require staff to bring a detention center moratorium to council which failed 1 (Falcone) to 6 (Curtis, Black, Tymczyszyn, Arnold, Prem, Pascal). Council members opposed her motion because they felt pursuing a temporary moratorium would delay progress on more permanent measures the city will be working on.

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