In Liveable Kirkland, we believe Kirkland should be "A Community for All of Us." We put that belief into action in many ways, such as by hosting over a dozen community events each month across Kirkland, and sponsoring community events from partner organizations.

Liveable Kirkland is a proud sponsor of the Pride event organized by Pride Across the Bridge on Sept 5, 12 noon to 5 pm at Marina Park in Kirkland. At the event, we'll be providing free secure parking for bikes, scooters, and strollers at our Bike Valet booth.

We'll also have an information booth about Liveable Kirkland with pictures from our many events and free give-a-ways. We're looking for helpers to staff the booth in shifts. Please sign up for a shift or two here!

Civil Detention Center Code Amendments

On Tuesday, the City Council will hold a public hearing and consider adopting zoning code amendments intended to prohibit civil detention facilities where people can be detained for any reason other than for criminal offenses. As previously noted by city staff:

Given the above, the City Council directed staff to pursue targeted zoning code amendments that would strongly express Kirkland’s opposition to the development of civil detention centers. The proposed ordinance states this opinion in the “whereas” clauses, and also excludes civil detention centers from the definition of "Government Facility” in the zoning code.

Affordable Housing in Low Density Zones

This discussion item is continued from the June 16th City Council meeting, where there was a 3-3 tied vote. Only 6 Councilmembers were in attendance due to Councilmember Pascal’s excused absence. Per City Council Policy, a tie vote results in the matter being tabled until a City Council meeting where all 7 Councilmembers can vote.

Back in 2025, the City Council approved an affordable housing requirement in low density residential zones starting in 2027. The fee will be on a per square foot basis, but they decided to exempt the first 2,000 square feet of total building area so that middle housing units are not affected. However, the ordinance establishing the requirement also asked for Staff and the City Council to review more options before it actually took effect.

The current debate is on whether the exemption on floor area should be raised from 2,000 square feet to 2,500 square feet. This would mean that more townhome sized buildings are exempt entirely. Staff recommend keeping the 2,000 square feet threshold, because they found that homes between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet are generally townhomes, and those are built in medium density zones today. Therefore, they argue that the change would benefit large single family homes, which are not affordable to most people.

Councilmembers who spoke in favor of this change previously were interested in encouraging more townhome development, or were against new housing fees generally.

Parking Requirements

Planning Commissioners discussed the updates to the zoning code to fully implement new lower vehicle parking requirements, as prompted by SB 5184. While there was a large volume of changes, they are mostly clean-up items that didn’t need discussion.

Bicycle parking did have some discussion. Recognizing that bicycle parking rates in most of the city were based on the number of car parking stalls, an interim standard was applied during the “early action ordinance” earlier this year which created standards based on the number of residential units, commercial floor area, and so on. This interim standard was largely copied over from the 85th St Station Area’s zoning. After further analysis, staff drafted the clean-up code to have somewhat lower bicycle parking rates, reflecting what is common in other nearby cities. They also suggested that the lower requirements could be applied to the 85th St Station Area and the Goodwill site in Juanita so that the standard is consistent throughout the city.

The Commission voted 6-1 to recommend the new lower bicycle parking rate throughout the city. Commissioner Reusser voted no, citing a desire to accommodate increasing bicycle usage, particularly e-bikes.

The Commission also voted 7-0 to add a reference to the State Building Code’s ADA parking requirement to the City’s zoning code, and then voted 7-0 to recommend the overall package to the City Council.

The next step for this project is for the City Council to discuss the Planning Commission’s recommendation at a future meeting, where they can then choose to adopt the code changes.

Faith Owned Properties

Staff presented the proposed code amendments to allow faith-based organizations to build more affordable housing on their property than is typically permitted. 

Prior to the meeting, the Commission received a letter from the Housing Development Consortium asking for faith organizations to be able to sell their property to an affordable housing developer and still be able to make use of the greater allowances. The code as written requires the faith organization to still own the property. The Commission directed Staff to explore how this could be done before the code amendments go to the City Council.

The next step for this project is for the City Council to discuss the Planning Commission’s recommendation at a future meeting, where they can then choose to adopt the code changes.

Neighborhood Stores and Services

Reminder that the City has a survey open to collect feedback on this project - make sure to fill it out if you haven’t already!

Staff gave a high-level briefing on the project to collect early thoughts from the Commission and decide what to look into and how to proceed.

Commissioners were broadly supportive of making a variety of code updates to make more home occupation businesses viable. While there are impacts to consider, these types of businesses usually don’t have high impacts on their surroundings. Restrictions on the numbers of customers were called out as a barrier, and restrictions on the number of deliveries was called out as being outdated, given the rise of household deliveries.

Commissioners were also interested in bringing a variety of neighborhood-serving stores to neighborhoods, but noted that there would be more concerns. Generally, commissioners preferred regulating the scale and type of use, rather than only allowing neighborhood commercial in certain places. Commissioners were interested in using this project as a way to make more businesses viable that aren’t today, while also improving life in neighborhoods.

It was agreed that certain types of businesses, particularly those selling alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and firearms, would be controversial and have higher impacts. There’s nuance though, as commissioners noted that there’s a difference between a winery in a garage and a tavern that’s open to 2 AM. Also, many Kirklanders today need to drive if they want to go to a bar, which is not something to encourage. Having more establishments in neighborhoods would improve this.

At our last litter event, we picked up litter in Kingsgate, so this time we'll be tidying up our adopted blocks in north Juanita on Sept 13, 10am. 🧹 🦺 🗑️

Don’t worry about gear; we'll provide everything you need (pickers, vests, gloves, and bags). It’s a rewarding way to spend a morning outdoors with neighbors.

Sign up here to join the crew

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!)