ToDo’s Bike Garage is a weekly* event in Kirkland’s Kingsgate neighborhood. Hosted by Charles (Chuck) Dandino, the Bike Garage is an opportunity to repair, maintain, or tune up your bike. Chuck provides all the basic tools and is happy to teach anyone who comes how to get their bike working right. (For more serious repairs you may need to buy your own replacement parts too.)

*Good to text/call Chuck ahead of time (323.926.8054) to make sure that the Bike Garage will be open. Or follow his Intragram!

Stay tuned for information soon about how we'll be helping to build bikes for foster kids. Contact Chuck if this is something that you'd like to help make happen!

Below are some highlighted items from the agenda of the next City Council meeting (February 17th). 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.

🌲 Park Board Work Plan

The City Council and the Park Board will hold a joint meeting during Council’s study session to discuss the Park Board Work Plan, Peter Kirk Pool Enclosure, and Community Engagement for the Kraken Project. Active projects on the the Park Board’s 2025-2026 Work Program include:

According to its Engagement Plan, the Park Board plans to:

🅿️ Parking Requirements Reform

The City Council will receive a briefing on how to implement SB 5184 during their Study Session. Staff is recommending that the Council implement changes to comply with SB 5184 early, because developers are likely to wait to submit new projects until the regulation takes effect.

SB 5184, passed in 2025 and taking effect in January 2027, limits when cities are allowed to require parking, and limits how much can be required. There will be no required parking for any residences smaller than 1,200 sq ft, commercial spaces under 3,000 sq ft, Affordable Housing units, and a few other uses. Single-family homes over 1,200 sq ft may require up to 1 space, multi-family units over 1,200 sq ft may require up to 0.5 spaces, and larger commercial spaces may be required to build up to 2 parking spaces per 1,000 sq ft.

Nothing about SB 5184 prevents developers from building more parking than is required. Even today, there are many scenarios where more than the minimum is built. However, parking is a significant portion of building costs. A lower requirement can make new types of buildings economically feasible, or allow the same type of building to be built (and rented out) for less.

Staff is presenting 3 options:

Staff has also suggested that the City Council could pass an Ordinance which implements SB 5184 parking requirements immediately, with the caveat that text amendments to the zoning code will follow soon after. 

After receiving feedback from the Council during the meeting, Staff will present to the Planning Commission during their February 26th meeting and then begin drafting code amendments.

🏊 Peter Kirk Pool Enclosure

With the failure of Kirkland’s two pool ballot measures the City Council is considering options to enclose Peter Kirk pool to provide residents an opportunity to swim year-round. The city is considering these four options for the pool with costs ranging from 17 to 32 million dollars:

Enclosure options were also discussed last year, and while the City Council provided feedback, there was not a final decision. Staff is now seeking direction on how to proceed. The main challenge will be finding funding sources, as the city has only identified about $9.5 million worth of potential funding sources.

As an interim measure, the City Council may also decide to increase funding to allow for additional swim lesson slots. This likely won’t be enough to meet current lesson demand, and does not address other community needs.

As previously reported, the February 12th meeting of the Planning Commission was canceled due to a lack of topics. This is the second canceled meeting so far this year.

While there are some projects remaining from last year, the Planning Commission is largely waiting for an updated Planning Work Program. The Commission does develop a recommended plan, but for this year the City Council has decided that it needs to provide direction on the plan first before the Commission can proceed.

The City Council will first discuss the Planning Work Program on March 3rd. The Planning Commission will then develop a recommendation during their March meetings, with adoption hopefully following in April.

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!)