I hope everyone has been enjoying the sunny weather we’ve been having : )

This week we wanted to highlight how something new we’ve been trying out locally has made a much bigger splash than we expected. Last year we purchased a bike lane sweeper to help keep our routes in better shape. You attach it to your own bike and then, as you bike around, it collects debris from the road surface and deposits it in an attached receptacle which you can empty once it fills up. We’ve found it’s especially handy for handling leaves which can get slippery when wet.

A few months ago Charlie posted a video to FaceBook of the sweeper in action. KUOW saw the post and reached out if they could do a news article which then ended up getting picked up by Nice News and shared across the country! After seeing our video, groups in two Oklahoma cities reached out to let us know that they were inspired to order bike lane sweepers for their respective cities too. Meanwhile a bike lane sweeper video from Portland, OR has been getting lots of views too. The idea is catching on!

Here on the Eastside, local volunteers have swept approximately 85 miles of bike lanes, paved trails, and sidewalks with our sweeper. If you're interested in volunteering your time and your bike pulling the sweeper, you can learn more here.

DEIB Annual Report Discussion

Council received an update on the city’s DEIB Roadmap. Soon, the city will be updating its DEIB road map with a focus on externally facing tasks. The roadmap currently focuses on internal tasks that improve how the city government operates. In discussion, Mayor Curtis and Council Member Arnold highlighted the need for more work on making it easier to run for and serve on the Kirkland City Council. Council Member Arnold also remarked Kirkland’s lack of rank choice voting may play a role in making running for city council less accessible.

State Legislation Discussion

The City Council discussed various bills that were introduced to the state legislature for this session. Two notable bills were:

Design Review

The City Council adopted Ordinance 4922 with a unanimous vote, updating the city’s design review processes to meet the new requirements set in state law. There was no discussion or changes to the ordinance during the meeting.

Sustainability Strategic Plan Report

Council received the year 5 report for this 10 year plan. 152 out of 195 actions are completed, in progress, or ongoing (added to the city’s recurring work). Some future plans were also discussed, including:

Officer Elections

The Planning Commission elected Angela Rozmyn as Chair and Aaron Jacobson as Vice-Chair with a unanimous vote. 

Planning Work Program Status

Planning Director Weinstein reported that the City Council asked to be the first to provide direction on the Planning Work Program this year, and then send it to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation afterwards. The scope of all 2026 items will also be first discussed by the City Council. The City Council will discuss the Planning Work Program at their March 3rd meeting. The earliest possible adoption would be March 17th, but April is likely.

Staff provided a status update for each item on the existing work program. Projects for minimum density in the 85th St Station Area, Code Enforcement policy updates, allowing housing on faith-based properties, and a new neighborhood plan update process are in progress but behind schedule (being originally intended for 2025).

The Totem Lake Southern Industrial Subarea plan is listed as the first priority for 2026. However, the work needs a consultant and the city council did not decide to fund it in their most recent budget. A “groundwork phase” is being done thanks to a grant. While initially thought to take 1 year, it’s now viewed as a 2 year project. With this funding gap, probably 3 years. 

There are other topics planned for 2026, such as state law compliance and a second round of middle housing updates, but only preliminary work can be done on these because the scope has not yet been set by the city council.

Commissioner Jacobson pointed out that while the city is required by state law to increase capacity for housing affordable to people earning 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI), nothing planned for completion 2026 fulfills this requirement. The recent Comprehensive Plan update identified the need for more housing of this type, but none has been added except by the Juanita CARs. However, the Greater Downtown action plan and Totem Lake Regional Center housing adjustments (scheduled for 2027) could address this need.

Commissioner Jacobson also requested that staff create a meeting schedule for the rest of the year in step with the Planning Work Program update. This will give the public more notice about when topics will be discussed, and writing out how many meetings a topic requires will help to inform priorities and workload. Commissioners Nolan and Madeya also expressed interest and Deputy Director Zike supported the idea.

Public Calendar Update

The February 12th meeting is likely to be canceled due to a lack of agenda items.

There will be a briefing on SB 5184 (parking requirement reform) on February 26th.

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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