It feels like there’s always something going on so we’re here to keep you up to date on your city. Check in here every week for the latest happenings at city hall, upcoming events, and ways you can get involved in crafting a more welcoming, liveable city for us all : )

Join The Urbanist and Urbanist Shoreline for a fun, energizing, no-holds-barred conversation about urbanism in our North King and South Snohomish County cities. Urbanists from each city will give a QUICK, non-boring presentation covering the recent local elections, current policy opportunities and setbacks, and where they're focusing their advocacy in the coming year. 

Make friends! Commiserate! Learn!

The goal is for those of us working and advocating for more liveable policies in our North Side communities to find some common ground and uncover some ways to work together in 2026.

RSVP here

Sunday, January 25, 4 - 6pm · Third Place Commons

The results of the November election have taken effect! Councilmembers Jay Arnold, Neal Black, and Jon Pascal were re-elected to an additional 4-year term, and Councilmember Shilpa Prem was elected to her first 4-year term. Prem is replacing long-time Councilmember (and former Mayor) Penny Sweet, who did not seek re-election.

The City Council unanimously voted for Kelli Curtis to serve a second 2-year term as Mayor, and for Neal Black to serve a 2-year term as Deputy Mayor, replacing Jay Arnold, who had served as Deputy Mayor for 10 years. Kirkland has a Council-Manager form of government, so Mayor is a largely ceremonial role, but they serve as the Chair of each City Council meeting and are the Presiding Officer. The Deputy Mayor fills that role if the Mayor is absent.

The City Council voted unanimously to have staff proceed with the $1.5 million Temporary Regional Booster Pump Station project, with the goal of addressing low water pressure in parts of the Highlands neighborhood in time for summer. The water pressure in this area dropped after changes to the city’s water infrastructure in April 2024 which improved flow rate for fire-fighting systems in the neighborhood. This is a temporary solution because a permanent improvement would not be ready by summer 2026. This multi-phase approach will bring relief sooner, but will have some wasted costs as the temporary equipment will not all carry over to the permanent fix.

Staff presented various options to add more signs to school zones, and options to improve and standardize them. All of Kirkland’s 17 school zones will get updated signage. City Council voted:

Staff will return with a more detailed plan on how these changes will be implemented (timeline, final costs and locations) at a future date.

Staff provided an update on outreach and planning efforts for the Green Loop, which will be a series of walking routes connecting parks and natural areas in the Finn Hill neighborhood.

Phase 1 of the Green Loop will create new trails inside of parks and public land, but many of the connections will be along roads rather than green spaces. Using public land and right-of-way makes it relatively quick to implement, but the quality of the routing will not be ideal.

Phase 2 will include more new trails, and the city will attempt to partner with property owners (via voluntary agreement) to achieve a complete, high-quality trail network.

The next step is a public informational meeting, tentatively scheduled for February 25th. Then, Staff will work on a Draft Implementation Plan for adoption later this year. Meanwhile, outreach will begin with property owners to inform the final route.

Kirkland Police Department Chief St. Jean and Deputy Chief Goguen gave a presentation about the purpose and procedures of the King County Independent Force Investigation Team. The IFIT-KC is a body (known as an Independent Investigation Team) required by state law which provides for independent oversight when police officers use deadly force. All police forces must be a member of an IIT.

Now that federal judicial oversight has ended for the Seattle Police Department, SPD must join an IIT. Most of King County is already in a single IIT, so SPD is seeking to join the body. To date, the entire IFIT-KC has seen about 3 deadly force cases a year that required oversight. SPD has historically averaged 2-4 deadly force cases a year of this kind. SPD would however bring additional qualified staff for IFIT-KC tasks. Kirkland, King County Sheriff and Washington State Patrol are currently the only sources of qualified Lead Investigators within IFIT-KC but other cities are catching up. Admitting SPD to IFIT-KC effectively needs unanimous approval of all member police forces, and all other members are expected to vote yes.

Councilmembers expressed concern over the drain on KPD resources that would be caused by possibly doubling the workload of IFIT-KC. The Police Chief and City Attorney advised that further amendments could be made to the agreement so other police forces contribute more resources. Kirkland could also vote to leave IFIT-KC and form a new IIT with another police force in the future if needed.

The City Council adopted Resolution 5712 in a 4-3 vote, with Arnold, Prem, Pascal and Black voting for and Tymczyszyn, Falcone, and Curtis voting against. This approved amendments to the Interlocal Agreement for IFIT-KC, including allowing SPD into the organization. The Police Chief will give an update on the status of IFIT-KC and impacts to KPD resources no later than December 31st, 2026.

Multiple Councilmembers have previously said they want to update the recruitment process for boards and commissions. However, these changes have not happened yet, and recruitment would normally start in the first week of January. There is just one expected vacancy to fill (Planning Commission), though there are Alternate positions to fill as well.

The City Council voted to extend all terms that would expire at the end of March to instead expire at the end of June. The City Council will discuss process updates at their Retreat on February 27th, then implement changes and start the recruitment process in March/April.

The Planning Commission typically meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month.

However, the January 8th meeting was canceled. The next meeting will be on January 22nd. Meeting materials are typically published a week before the meeting, so check back next weekend!

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!)