Don Winters called the meeting to order. We had a turnout of about 40 members. Delicious brownies were baked by Melinda O'Rourke.
Kirkland Neighborhood Outreach Coordinator Kari Page gave us a preview of the Planning Conversations meeting that will take place Jan 30. The City is hosting four public workshops to engage residents in conversations about their neighborhood plans and how they relate to the ongoing update to the Kirkland Comprehensive Plan. Moss Bay will meet with Market, Norkirk, and Highlands neighborhoods. The meeting runs from 6 - 8:30 at City Hall. Kirkland Police Officer Brian Frankenberger updated us on police activities in our neighborhood. In the past 6 months, theft(47), DUI(25), vehicle break-ins(17), vandalism(17), buglary(16), and assault(13) were the bulk of the crimes reported. Brian thinks that Moss Bay and Kirkland as a whole have a very low crime rate. Kirkland lost it's "action team" when budgets were cut in the recession and Brian hopes it can be reinstated. The new Public Safety Building at 11831 120th Avenue NE will be ready by this summer. Brian fielded many questions from our members, who always seem to appreciate visits by the KPD. Christian Knight and Gina Hortillosa of Public Works teamed up to give a presentation on the Park Lane Renovation, which is scheduled to commence in 2015. The street will be reconfigured in the Flexible Festival Street design. The street will close for fairs, festivals and markets and include public pedestrian spaces without curbs, a raised intersection at Main Street and Park Lane for entertainment, and raised crosswalks, especially at the entrances to Park Lane. Aimee Voelz of our group spoke about her ideas for Reenergizing Neighborhoods. As part of this City led process, Aimee is researching a new mission statement for the Moss Bay NA. We conducted an online survey of our members and found the zoning was the number one issue of concern. We will continue to gather input. Kari Page gave us some background about the City's proposed Safety Improvement Program for Neighborhoods. We may be able to apply for significant grants to fund safety improvements for our neighborhood and/or adjacent neighborhoods if this program is approved by the City Council. Bea Nahon, Moss Bay's KAN representative, encouraged us to start thinking about ideas and suggested that possibly a task force could be appointed to identify projects and gather the information needed for the grant process. Bernie Crane, a resident and long-time volunteer with the Bellevue Police, spoke about the National Night Out program on the first Tuesday of August. Bernie encourages Kirkland residents and the City to participate. For more information about this program, see http://natw.org/ Don Winters reported on several new projects that have been proposed in Moss Bay. Polygon Northwest is planning 90 residential units for the Wells Fargo bank site at 460 Central Way. This is the third such project under way on this stretch of road, along with the Crab Cracker site "residential suites" and the White Swan site mixed use project (76 units). At 220 6th St, the former site of Hart Surveyors, a 53 unit apartment complex is being planned by Waddell Properties. The Kirkland Professional Center site at 433 State St. is once again seeing a proposal, this time to build 19 residential units. The developer is Windward Real Estate Services. We hope to have one or more of these developers at our March meeting. Our next meeting will be March 17, 2014 7PM at Heritage Hall, 203 Market. St. Comments are closed.
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