Happy September! We’re trying something new out this month and we’ll be hosting our Chainline meetups every Monday this month, rather than just the Monday’s before City Council meetings. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.

Additionally, the 21st’s meetup will be a work party making microwavable bed warmers for our neighbors at Camp United We Stand and at the LWUMC Safe Parking Program. In each of these locations, folks sleep in the cold in either tents or cars, but they have access to microwaves that they can use to heat up socks filled with rice or feed corn, which they can put in their sleeping bags to help take the edge off the cold. When shelter is not available, having access to a bed-warmer can make a big difference for people's health and quality of sleep during the cold months of the year.

Last year we built 57 re-usable microwaveable bed warmers. This year we'll again fill new socks with rice or feed corn and tie the top of each sock closed. We'll deliver the bed-warmers to interested organizations.

Please reach out to [email protected] if:

Thank you to our 14 volunteers who helped out at our booth and Bike Valet at Pride Across the Bridge this year!

Civil Detention Center Code Amendments

On Tuesday, the City Council adopted zoning code amendments expressing the City of Kirkland’s opposition to ICE locating a detention facility in Kirkland. 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.

No Change to Affordable Housing Fee

The City Council resumed discussion on Ordinance 4937 regarding the city’s Affordable Housing fee that will take effect on January 1st, 2027. In 2025, the City Council established this new fee at a rate of $15 per square foot of building area above 2,000 square feet, but also decided that the details of the fee should be reviewed again before it takes effect. The new ordinance proposed raising the threshold to 2,500 square feet, largely with the goal of exempting townhome designs.

During discussion, Councilmembers Prem and Falcone moved an amendment to the proposed ordinance, which would result in a 2,500 square foot threshold, but increase the fee to $20 per square foot. Raising the threshold without changing the fee rate would result in less funding for affordable housing, hence the amendment. Prem argued that homes up to 2,500 square feet, which includes townhomes and the smaller end of single family homes built today, also count as middle housing. Falcone stated that while she is not a fan of taxing housing to address the housing crisis, cities have limited options. She supported the amendment with the goals of increasing funding for affordable housing, discouraging large homes, and bringing fairness to how different homes contribute to funding affordable housing.

The amendment to the ordinance passed 4-3. Arnold, Prem, Falcone, and Curtis voted in favor. Tymczyszyn, Pascal, and Black voted against, citing concerns over this amendment being late-breaking, and that the data from City Staff did not support changing the fee.

There was also a unanimous amendment to remove the need for Staff to come back to the City Council with a dedicated report on the impacts of this fee in 2028. This was done to create certainty for developers and also to reduce duplicate work, as this issue will be monitored during other regular reports.

However, the amended Ordinance did not pass, with a vote of 4 against and 3 in favor. Tymczyszyn, Arnold, Pascal, and Black voted against, while Prem, Falcone, and Curtis voted in favor. 

During earlier discussion, Councilmember Arnold stated that while he thought the fee rate also should be increased if the threshold was increased, he still preferred the original concept that was adopted in 2025 ($15 per square foot above 2,000 square feet). Because the ordinance failed, the original fee passed in 2025 will take effect on January 1, 2027.

The Commission’s next meeting, on September 10th, will be a Retreat, rather than a typical business meeting. This means that no votes will be taken and it will not be recorded or live streamed, but it is still open to the public. The aim of a Retreat is to have less structured discussions on a variety of topics, making it easier for Commissioners to share ideas amongst themselves and with Staff.

The agenda is as follows:

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!)