Liveable Kirkland Newsletter 04/05/26

Ready to make a visible difference? Liveable Kirkland is heading out for our third litter cleanup, and we’d love your help! We’ve officially adopted two stretches of road (one in North Juanita and one in Kingsgate) and it’s time to give them some TLC 🧹 .

We’ll start at 10a at both sites and will probably finish around noon. Don’t worry about gear; the City of Kirkland provides everything you need (pickers, vests, gloves, and bags). It’s a rewarding way to spend a morning outdoors with neighbors. Many hands make light work!

Sign up here to join the crew

Below are some highlighted items from the agenda of the next City Council meeting. You can read the full meeting materials here.

To share your thoughts with the City Council about any of these topics, send an email to [email protected]. You can also sign up to speak during Items from the Audience (in-person or remotely) via this link. Sign-ups open at 7PM on the day of the meeting.

Parking Requirements Reform

The City Council will consider adoption of an Ordinance that implements new parking requirements which comply with SB 5184, effective 5 days after publication. The zoning text of the Ordinance was previously discussed and recommended to the city council by the planning commission.

Federal Immigration Response Resolution

Staff will present a draft resolution which calls for several actions in response to the national trend of federal immigration enforcement.

The current draft calls for many actions, including a review of internal city policies and training, and specifically a security audit of all city camera systems. It also directs the city to engage in outreach and communication between the city and regional partners, and to develop and publish “know your rights” information. It also calls for legislation to be developed regarding a permitting moratorium on any detention centers in the city, waiving city fines and fees for persons impacted by federal immigration actions, prohibiting immigration enforcement activities at city-controlled buildings (if such legislation is legally allowed), and establishing KPD protocols for responding to 911 calls about federal immigration actions.

Neighborhood Plans

Staff will present a draft of a new process for amending Neighborhood Plans. Neighborhood plans are intended to show how city-wide policies in the city’s Comprehensive Plan will be implemented at the neighborhood scale. They have existed in some form for several decades, though they were not consistently updated until recently. Neighborhood Plans are now included directly within the comprehensive plan, which has a major update every 10 years.

The Neighborhood Plan Amendment Request process would allow individuals and organizations to request updates to a neighborhood plan in between these 10 year updates. Applications will be taken until November 1st of even years, with evaluation and implementation in the following year.

Boards & Commissions

The City Council will re-appoint several people to boards and commissions as a part of the Consent Agenda. Recruitment for all open seats will start on April 8th. There will be one open seat on the Planning Commission and one on the Transportation Commission, among other openings.

7th Ave & State St Improvements

As part of the consent agenda, the city council will be considering awarding a construction contract for pedestrian safety improvements at 7th Avenue and State Street. The project will cost $124,902 and will include a new rapid flashing beacon and striped crosswalk.

Letter to the Sound Transit Board

Near the end of the meeting, the council will discuss approving a letter to the Sound Transit Board outlining the City’s priorities in Sound Transit’s Enterprise Initiative, the project to fix Sound Transit’s budget shortfalls for ST3.

With the proposed light rail stop at the South Kirkland Park and Ride potentially at risk of being deferred, the draft letter asks that:

Similarly, the City of Issaquah, led by Mayor Mark Mullet, has been pushing for options for how Issaquah can help make building Line 4 cheaper and easier, as reported by The Urbanist.

Previous discussions in Kirkland have also proposed to reduce costs by deferring construction of parking garages at park and rides that don’t need the extra capacity.

Below are some highlighted items from the agenda of the next Planning Commission meeting. You can read the full meeting materials here.

Written comments can be submitted by emailing [email protected]. To give a public comment during the meeting, raise your hand in Zoom or fill out the paper sign-up sheet at City Hall.

Urban Forestry Management Plan

Staff will brief the commission on their intended process for updating the Urban Forestry Management Plan. The UFMP has not been updated since adoption in 2013, though work towards the goals of the Plan are covered in 6 year workplans. At a previous meeting, the City Council directed staff to complete a minor update by the end of the year without bringing in a consultant. Staff intends to update the UFMP to match policies in the recent comp plan update, incorporate data about trees in Kirkland collected since 2013, produce data analysis, and create goals and work items based on this information.

Staff intends to present research findings to the City Council in July, then bring a draft plan to the Planning Commission in August.

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!)