It started as a simple request in the Liveable Kirkland Discord if someone could do a Costco run. Lake Washington United Methodist Church’s Safe Parking Program was in need of cold weather items and Costco had some on clearance. The budget was $300. Then someone chimed in, asking if they could contribute money to help out too. So did another person. And another. All told, 7 folks donated nearly $1000(!) to help out with just about everything the Safe Parking Program was in need of:

Thank you everyone for your generosity!

Another way we’ve been taking care of our community is by assembling whistle kits with our friends from Indivisible Eastside at our last Meetup. These kits help keep our neighbors aware of their rights and alert others of ICE activity in the area. You may have seen them around at local businesses. Please take one for yourself or someone you know if you see them! Here they are at BookTree:

Below are some highlighted items from the next City Council meeting, on January 20th. 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 City Council meeting.

Staff will give an annual report on progress towards the goals of the Sustainability Strategic Plan. Adopted in 2020, the Plan set a wide range of goals to reduce, offset and mitigate environmental impacts in the city. This includes renewable energy production, electrifying appliances, habitat restoration, recycling, reducing transportation emissions, promoting low-emission transportation, and outreach.

We recommend reading the staff report in the meeting materials to see all of the progress, and what needs more attention.

The City Council will be taking final action on many changes to the zoning code (particularly Chapter 92, Design Regulations, and Chapter 142, Design Review Process), to comply with new state law established by HB 1293. The state now requires all design standards and reviews to be based on “clear and objective” regulations. Previously, many elements of the city’s zoning code were subjective in nature. The intent of these code amendments is to keep the standards (and thus what is allowed to be built) as close as possible to what exists today, while meeting the new requirements. These standards talk more about design features such as modulation, roofs, open space, etc. Regulations such as height limits and lot coverage are generally handled in other parts of the code, and aren’t changing.

The Design Review Board’s role is also changing in response to this state legislation. Many DRB decisions involved a subjective element, which is no longer allowed, and the legislation also limits the DRB to having a single meeting on a given project. While the DRB is not being eliminated, all projects will now be administratively reviewed by City Staff by default. The DRB’s new role will be to review projects where an applicant wants to significantly deviate from the city’s code in some way. Smaller variations can still be handled by city staff, like today.

City staff will present the annual update on the status of projects in Kirkland’s 5-year Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Roadmap. Out of the 68 objectives, 59 have been deemed complete, 6 are mostly complete, and only 3 objectives are mostly incomplete. 

These goals are at least 50% complete:

These goals are mostly incomplete:

Every year Kirkland sends lobbyists to Olympia to advocate for the city’s interests. In Tuesday’s meeting staff will present an overview of the positions the city is taking on various bills. Some bills the city will be supporting (some only with modifications) this year include:

The city will be opposing:

The Planning Commission’s next meeting is January 22nd, in-person at City Hall or remotely via Zoom, starting at 6PM.

The Planning Commission’s schedule has been unusually light. Their first meeting of 2026 was canceled, and the tentative calendar provided in the meeting packet has many blank entries. The Planning Commission’s meeting topics are determined by the Work Program of the Planning and Building Department, which is created by the City Council.

The Planning Work Program has a 3-year timeframe, and is typically updated every winter. However, Plan updates won’t be discussed by the Planning Commission until March 12th, and it’s not on the City Council’s calendar at all (as of writing). It’s likely to take two City Council meetings to complete: one briefing and one meeting for final action.

The end result is that it’s unclear what projects the Planning Department and Planning Commission will take on this year, or when the decision will even be made.

Staff will give a presentation describing the structure of the Planning and Building Department, information about how Planners approach near and long-term plans, how the permitting process works, and how the Department plans to improve that process. Staff will also answer questions from Commissioners. If you’re ever curious about how the city does something, send an email to that department!

The Planning Commission will be electing a new Chair for the commission. Terms normally end in May, but Chair Rutherford indicated that he wishes to resign early (while continuing as a general member of the Commission). Angela Rozmyn will remain Vice Chair until her term expires.

Vice Chair Rozmyn is about to finish her second term, which means she cannot be re-appointed. The City Council will be requesting applicants for the Commission soon. As we previously reported, this process has been delayed a few months compared to most years. The City Council stated intent to make changes to the recruitment process, but this was not completed in time.

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

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!)

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