Meeting Notes - November 17, 2008

     Welcome - Don Winters & Mark Eliasen:  Welcome and we are here to learn more about local issues. Want to recognize Deputy Mayor Joan McBride for coming to the meeting.

• Development proposal for a 6-unit multifamily project at 403 2nd Ave. S.– Anne Van Dyne, (annevandyne@mac.com) Tangent Architects: Size is below the standard for a neighborhood meeting, (10 units or more require a meeting) but they wanted to update the neighborhood on what is going on. 4th St S and 2nd Ave South.  They are applying for a zoning permit to build a 6 unit townhome project.  There is currently an existing small house on the lot.  Across from some townhomes.  Zoning is 6D already – no variance needed.  Using the affordable housing incentive.  One unit will be affordable housing.  This allows for two additional units as an incentive bonus.  All units will be the same in design and construction.  However, the affordable units have restrictions on how much they can be rented for or sold for.  They will remain affordable for 30 years – so if sold they must be sold under the affordable housing guidelines.  Must be sold to someone who makes less than 80% of the median income in King County.  If leased then renter must make less than 50% median income.  Common open space between the units with recreational areas – probably grilling and picnic areas.  Trees every 10 feet.  Garage is sunk – 12 parking spaces.  Interior storage areas in garage.  Two story units.  Each unit has their own entry way and deck on the second floor.  Not sure yet if they are sale or rental.  May be a combination of both.  Michael Jaklin is the owner of the site.  
• Traffic, Parking & Transit issues in Kirkland – Daryl Grigsby Director of Public Works Department will discuss the infrastructure topics and answer your questions:  
  • Signal at Third and Kirkland: Balancing issues with the Park and Transit Center and Condos and the Hotels.  A lot of traffic and pedestrians.  Signal is part of the Transit Center project and they are paying for part of it.  Opening bids for the project are going out on Friday, November 21st.  Expecting a lot of bids due to the economy and hoping to have the project done by March 30, 2009.  Might go longer – wiring is the key issue, but anticipating being done by March.  If anything slips they will let us know.
  • Transit Center: 90% done with design.  Construction will start in November, 2009 and should be completed by November 2010.  Will follow same routes they do now.  Hoping this will be a key link between Peter Kirk Park and Park Lane and downtown.  During the height of construction there will be one lane Northbound and no Southbound lane for most of the year.  Coordination with other building plans.  Sewer pumping (King County) building behind Papa John’s Pizza place and Library expansion will also be done at that time. There will be a new sewer line and this will result in streets being torn up.  This will also result in the loss of about 40 parking stalls total for the duration of the plans.  The parking across from Wendy’s will need to be used for bus staging.  Will also lose some spots on Park Lane.  Some bus routes (like 255) will now go up Central to 6th as opposed to State.  Kirkland Wednesday market will not be on Park Lane next year because of this.  Library garage will remain open.  If you have issues with the proposed bus routes contact the Kirkland transportation commission of the city or King County Transit. 
  • Does Kirkland manage the electrical grid?  No, there is a franchise from the City.  Electrical grid has not been upgraded and some condos have had issues.  Daryl will follow up with the electric company.
  • Central Way: Has the narrowing of the street achieved its objectives which were to make it more pedestrian friendly, providing more parking, and calming traffic.  No hard statistics, but seems to have worked well and is a more pleasant environment.  Parking is used.  Antidotal evidence shows it works.  Did this result in any traffic backups because of this?  At peak times there is some backup, but it flows fairly quickly.   Only usually really bad if there is an accident on the I-405 so people get off to go up Market.
  • Comment made that pedestrian crossing areas are too distracting and there are a lot of close calls.  However, point was made that people are stopping more often and further back.  As long as you are paying attention it works.  One by Park Lane blinks too long.  Needs to be adjusted.  City Council is out in front of other places in the Nation.  Have 30 in pavement flashing lights and 70 places with flags.  This is many more than other cities.  Take it to Make it was 8% usage initially.  Did a marketing survey on why people did not use them.  Changed signage on buckets and usage has gone up 67%.  Flags are $4 each – replace a flag about 5 times a year- spend about $5,000 annually on flags.  Puget Sound grant paid for the marketing survey.
  • Plans to improve intersection in front of Heritage Hall – Market and Central.  Will look at this to see if anything can be done.
  • The City approved the new Solid Waste rate effective January 1, 2009.  Has an incentive for recycling for signal family homes.  96, 64, 35 gallon recycling bin sizes.  There will now be linear.  The smaller bin you use – the less you pay.  The 35 gallon bin rate is going down and the 64  and 96 gallon bin rates are going up.  So the more you recycle the more you can save. 
  • Houghton parking lot – is this lot being misused by local office workers? Supposed to be for park use, but since lot is not strictly enforced it is being misused.  The city will follow up with the Parks department on enforcement.
  • Sidewalks: Both sides of Kirkland Way between 5th and 6th street is in poor shape.  Tree roots keep growing up and the sideway is very uneven.  What will be done about this?  Other sidewalks are bad as well.  The dilemma is the trees and had a City Council session on this issue.  Do want to have trees – have a lot of benefits with environment issues, traffic calming benefits and rainwater absorption.   But trees do have root issues for sidewalks.  Thought about moving the sidewalk out – take away the parking so that the trees would be back from sidewalk.  Decided not to do this.  Also thought about doing rubber sidewalk that bends with the root structure– pilot project.  Want to see how it works before putting it in elsewhere.  On 103rd at the moment.  So what is the best thing to do and how can the city pay for it?
  • State and 68th and on LakeView drive – planters and brush – who maintains these?  Property owner is responsible.  If there is no property owner present then Kirkland grounds crew will clean it.  If a complaint is made then a letter is sent to the owner to have them clean it up.  However, with the current budget cutbacks that are being planned some of the medians and other grounds areas there will be cutbacks and you may see some dwindling areas of care.  One suggestion made was to get volunteer groups to take care of these issues.  Might be some Union issues with volunteers taking over.
  • If you have public works issues e-mail the Moss Bay association and they will pass them on.
  • Park Lane  – Kari Page, Kirkland Neighborhood Coordinator :  Park Lane from Lake to 3rd .  Issues are sidewalks are cracking, tree roots are showing and what do we want Park Lane to look and feel like.  Since there is a lot of construction going on now is a good time.  There is no funding at the moment.  Got together a group of Stakeholders including business owners, reps from Moss Bay Association, the library, the transit commission, parking board and residents.  What did people like and dislike?  
    • Enhance Park Lane as a destination
    • Accommodate diverse retail – not just restaurants or galleries.
    • Accommodate all forms of access – walking, driving, bikes
    • High performance landscape
    • Make the section up by Antique Mall match lower Park Ave
  • Three kinds of streets proposed – Most likely be a hybrid of these ideas.
    • Hybrid– lots of walking, but still cars – two way street on Main and Third and will not lose parking
    • Festival street – no curbs – more space for tents and areas.  Lose parking
    • Complete street – slow down cars but still allow them.  Make it easier to understand that it is a one way street.
  • Looking to improve intersection at Main and Park.  What kinds of trees would be appropriate for upper section of Park Lane.  Have an arborist report to see how existing trees can be replaced as they age and are no longer viable.  Will be slowly replaced.  Trees will stay in some form or another.
  • Hoping to have the recommendation for the final vision by December and will send it out.
  • For more information check out the Park Lane Page: http://www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/depart/Public_Works/Capital_Improvements/Park_Lane.htm 

• New regulations that will impact property within 200 feet of Lake Washington – Teresa Swan, Senior Planner, City of Kirkland: 30 years ago the City adopted Shoreline regulations.  Has not been updated since.  The State passed the Shoreline Management Act which requires Cities to update their plans and regulations.  Salmon is an issue, as is use and shoreline access.  There can be no net loss.  Any new additions cannot cause any net loss of access.  Does not impact existing areas, but anything new or a teardown and rebuilding will be subject to the new regulations.   City is looking to see what they can do to replace piers and other bulkheads.  Trying to improve the habitat for the Lake.  Making changes to the zoning code to make sure they are consistent with the new Shoreline standards.  Need to update Shoreline program to be consistent with the new Department of Ecology regulations on wetlands protection.  Will be an open house in the Spring for people to make recommendations  Planning commission is looking at these and then it will go to the City Council for approval and then the Department of Ecology will need to sign off.  Some Cities have already gone and had to go back and make changes.  About 80% of the Shoreline currently is bulkheads and walls.  Not the best situation for the ecology.  Will work with what we have and try to improve where we can – most shoreline homes have lawns next to the shore.  Department of Ecology would like to see more natural vegetation.  Only would be an issue if you are re-development.  If you want new bulkhead you will have to prove that you need it.  If not, a soft shoreline will be put into place. For example gravel or logs.  Need to make sure they are well designed in order to stand up to the high winds, but if well designed the softer shorelines can be effective.  Shoreline regulations planning can be found on the website at:  http://www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/depart/Planning/Code_Updates/Shoreline_Master_Program_Update.htm These do effect everything within 200 feet of the shore.  Will be several meetings in the spring and you can send comments any time.   Probably no major changes – just slow changes as people renovate.  If you do renovate your pier it might need to be narrowed and changed to a more open grating. Vegetation needs to be low.  Fencing people need to be able to see through.  30% of the property needs to have a view corridor.  Is there a study or a chart showing where the salmon are?  If you do not know the path then how can you justify these regulations?  What is the City going to do?  Answer is that the City is responding to the Department of Ecology and they are the ones setting the regulations and their goal is to bring back the salmon.  If Kirkland has no spawning areas in Kirkland then why do we need to have such restrictions?  Answer is the State wants to improve them to bring them back.  Question does the State have a map?  City will find out or you can request maps from the State Department of Ecology http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/hab/release.htm  
• Neighborhood projects:
  • ParkPlace Update –  Carolyn Hayek – for over a year the Planning Commission has been looking at ParkPlace.  Vote of 5 to 2 to approve the rezone of ParkPlace for eight stories.  Has a lot of restrictions and suggestions.  This is a recommendation to the City Council.  The Council will need to vote on this.  For documents you can see the Planning Commissions website http://www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/depart/Planning/Planning_Commission.htm or Kirkland Views article: http://www.kirklandviews.com/2008/11/17/planning-commission-to-recommend-approval-of-kirkland-parkplace-par-and-costco-gas-station-par/  Planning commission has tried to make this green and good for the community, but cannot mandate everything.  Have tried to make this as foolproof as possible.  If the City Council does approve then Moss Bay will bring Touchstone back in to show final plans.
  • Costco adding a gas station to their North end and the Planning Commission is recommending that this be approved as well.  This is the only Costco in the state without a gas station.  Both ParkPlace and Costco gas station should be voted on by the City Council in December.
  • B of A building has reached a settlement and a 5 story will be built with some changes.  For details check out Kirkland Views at: http://www.kirklandviews.com/2008/11/05/settlement-bank-of-america-site-to-be-developed/ 
  • Google is taking all three buildings and sublease one of the three buildings.  The manager of the Google site will be coming to the next meeting in January.  Had a tour, but it was just a shell at that time.  Been working on the site 6 days a week on the buildout.
  • McLeod project – may just be from Hectors to Tully’s.  Might leave section from Tully’s to Ben and Jerry’s intact.  However, project is having financing issues so no firm plans.
  • The KDA – Kirkland Downtown Association is taking donations to help get the Christmas lights back up.  You can e-mail them at julie@kirklanddowntown.org for details