Meeting Notes - May 19, 2008

Welcome: 

• Bill Anspach update from the meeting with the  Parking Advisory Board as the Stakeholder from the Moss Bay Association.  Issues covered – PAB recommended making the April 16th and 24th had two meetings to determine what we wanted to charge for parking in the evening.  Goal was consistency and easy to understand.  Four 30 minute free spots in the two lots, handicapped parking, and three hour parking during the day.  Evenings – (5-9) $1 an hour.  This is the recommendation going to the Council.  Implementing mid to late Fall 
• Ken Dueker added the PAB is giving back something in that parking will be free now during the day.  

 

• Walk Around Kirkland: David Ramsay, Kirkland City Manager< >Since there is an appeal David cannot talk about the Bank of America project and the McLeod project –quasi-judicial state and the members of the  Council and the staff cannot talk about the project.  David will leave ParkPlace to TouchstoneNorth – Annexation – is the city going to annex the Juanita, Kings Gate and North Hill?  City Council meeting tomorrow, and from a preliminary straw poll it appears that the vote tomorrow will go 4-3 and annexation will not happen. Hard decision because it is two goods points of view.  Counties should provide main infrastructure and Cities take over local services.  So for good public policy Kirkland should take it over.  However, for good fiscal policy the city does not think it should take it over.  The State offered additional fund to cover 10 years of the gap in revenue for costs of services.  Problem remained of what to do after 10 years.  It appears that it is the right thing to do, but it is not fiscally possible and that is what David believes will be said tomorrow night in the meeting. Fiscal state of the city- budget is facing serious problems.  Two year budget cycle.  The 09-10 budget is what is being planned now.  The General Fund is abut $120 Million over two years.  Projecting a $6 million shortfall and they are working to cover the gap.  The General Fund covers things like parks, police, etc.  The shortfall comes from lack of growth and the level of dependency on sales taxes.  Costco has opened stores in Bellevue and Redmond taking sales taxes and Toyota dealership is moving out of town taking revenue too.  Tools to cover this are reductions in services and increases in other forms of revenue.  What services to cut? Kirkland gets good reviews on services and the public does not want to see any cut and wants other services.  Trying to identify lower priority services.  Police and Fire are 60% of the budget.  Cannot cut streets.  People want parks.  Council is looking to engage the community to identify areas people are willing to cut.What fiscal responsibility does Kirkland have for the transit center?  None – all coming from Sound Transit.Pension system for City employees – is this an issue?  Yes, Kirkland pays well and it takes a large part of their budget.  This is one of the areas Kirkland is looking at – medical benefits, compensation overall may take a hit.  Police and Fire are Unionized and if an agreement cannot be reached it will go to arbitration.  Will the increase Seattle just gave impact Kirkland?  Probably and there are issues in recruiting – competitive and hard to find the right people to fit the job.  Need to pay near the top in order to attract and retain officers.  Noted by member that Kirkland employees are excellent and do their jobs well.Income enhancements- what will these be?  Looking to increase sales tax and what will happen with Totem Lake MallTotem Lake Mall – sorry condition and getting worse.  A REIT bought the mall 4 years ago and there were high hopes to get it turned around.  Good mixed use project but it is 2 ½ years later and nothing has happened.  The REIT is trying to attract tenants.  The number one revenue source is sales tax and that is what the city is hoping to increase and attract.  The REIT developers still say they are coming in a month or two (David will believe that when they show up).Other revenue opportunities – property tax or utility taxes could be increase.Development revenue from construction is important, but that work is winding down.Were people willing to have the taxes raised – some were.  City is also considering a head tax on employees.  The business license fee was hard to get through and since there are many small employers Kirkland has to be careful how it goes after businesses. Avoiding B & O (business and operations) tax that other nearby cities have.Juanita Village –  It has improved a lot in the past 10 years.  Third phase is coming into place and Juanita Beach Park is coming along.  Metropolitan Market is coming into Houghton area – taking over Houghton Market.  Google is coming in 180,000 square feet of office space on 6th St. S.Nokia is coming into ParkPlace.  David hopes we are creating a niche for high quality tech firms who care about quality of place.Transit Center- signal at 3rd and Kirkland is under design.  Should be under construction early 2009.  Transit Center itself is under re-design and should get underway in summer 2009Park lane and what to do about sidewalks and trees.  Want to enhance the areas and needs to improve it and improve the sidewalks without hurting the trees.Peter Kirk Park – concerns about inappropriate behavior and the City is working on the issues.  If you have concerns please call with details.  The Chief of Police is putting more officers and undercover officers there and please let them know if the issues do not improve.   Want to enforce proper behavior without hassling people who are just hanging out.Park Place – who would hear an appeal if one was file?  Looks like the Council will hear it.  Problem is the current Design Review Board only has 3 members and so cannot operate effectively.  What will happen?  Going to be discussed at the Council meeting tomorrow.Comment made that all the sidewalks downtown – not just Park Lane need help.  David agrees and once a solution is developed then they will start looking for funding.8 of the top 10 tax revenue generators are car dealers.  Construction is large, but they are single shots.  Toyota of Kirkland is moving to old  Graham Steel site – is it part of Kirkland? No it is part of the area under consideration for annexation, so Kirkland would lose that sales tax revenue, around 500K/year.    Question was raised can Kirkland just annex small areas?  It depends were allowed to cherry pick in the past to choose areas that would pay for themselves.  Comment made that hoops to jump through to get permits to build in Kirkland are too burdensome and if Kirkland wants to encourage development shouldn’t they make it easier?  Two parts – high standards – which Kirkland does not want to drop – and process – which should be streamlined, but Kirkland actually rates high in process.  Announcements:< >Moss Bay BBQ –Glenn Peterson and Sarah Andeen are heading up the effort.  July 21st – first ever BBQ.  Do not usually have a meeting in July so we thought we would have a BBQ instead of a regular meeting.  We have funds to spend on food.  Will be here on the patio from 5:30 or so.  Bring your own beverages.  Going to have a band – Mud Junket and a few announcements.  Looking for a few volunteers and a few people with BBQ grills.  Keep checking the website if for details.Memorial Day – Seven Hills of Kirkland should have 1,500 bikers – please be aware of the bikers and if you want to help out the troops at the water stations and such please volunteer.  Will be starting around 5:30 am.  Please come on down. http://www.7hillskirkland.com/ June 10th anniversary of the Kirkland Performance Center  and on June 8th there is a full day of free performances. Library Update -  Library will be shutting in October for remodeling and a small outpost will be set up in ParkPlace books for holds and such.Park Place Re-Development: A.P. Hurd from Touchstone Corporation 
  • Been developing a mixed used proposal for the past 18 months.  Been looking at the Downtown Strategic Plan and how could they help meet these needs – including parking, need for pedestrian connection, strong retail, need for office space, need for more retail.  In order to meet these goals they hired retail consultant Bob Gibbs.   < >Need critical mass – must be able to do all their shopping there 300,000 square feetNeeds to be complementary not competitive to downtownWant smaller local and regional stores with only a few national storesWant stores where you can find what you need – basic suppliesLead to a larger QFC with more hardware, etc.Not spoken to other tenants because there do not yet have approval for the mixed use plan.  Will speak to them once (if ) approval is granted.Pedestrian friendly – how can it be made for people to walk.  Wanted to try to put all the parking underground  Want a few roads through the place.  Makes people feel more comfortable – if you make the cars go slower it helps to connect peopleLots of open space that is different from a Park – just to people watch or sit and have a coffee or listen to a band or view art or see fountains.  Want to have a good open lively space.This is expensive – in order to make this work need to go to 8 stories for office space in order to pay for this.  Needs a zoning amendment.  Working through the process now.  Had 5 public meetings.  The height is an issue and people are concerned.  Touchstone is trying to work to make it as inviting as possible to pay for all of this and yet still have the density needed to pay for this.  If they cannot get the approval for the office space then they cannot do the project.  Retail is slow to stabilize.  Offices pay back faster.  Being reviewed by the Planning Commission on June 12th.  If you have thoughts please come.  Then City Council needs to sign off.  Hoping to have a decision by the end of the year.  Comments – need to bring the site up out of a bowl  - to have ground level match the street.  The overall height will be about 120 feet because retail sites tend to be higher.  Also office heights tend to be about 11 – 13 feet per floor.  This allows for better lighting and ventilation.  These will be sustainable buildings and will be environmentally friendly and this means they do need to be higher .Developed a site plan and a massing study.  This gets expensive with plans and bills and they will not fully develop all the building until approval is granted.  This is why in the mock ups the office buildings are fairly plain and boring  - just to show where the buildings will be and how they will fit in the site.Setback from the street/park is supposed to be 20 feet. Only one corner is not at 20 feet because it is city owned.  The rest of the development setbacks average 35 feet.  Because of the uncertainty with the city they have also submitted an office only alternative.  This is just to hedge their bets.  Not to try to force the City's hand, but they need to recoup their investment – so if the mixed use is not approved then it will be turned into an all office park.   It will be a nice office park – a few restaurants and one or two small stores to serve the offices.  This proposal will be at about 70 feet high. In Phase I of alternative, QFC would remain as-is. Unsure about what happens in Phase II of alternative.1.8 million square feet.  1.2 million of office 300,000 retail and 300,000 hotel and sports club comprise the mixed use development. Number of office workers is about 4,300 with a maximum of about 4,800.  This will require 3,500 parking spaces and how do you bring that many people into the city and where do they park. If you want to read all about the environmental impact there is a 350 page pdf document on the City website that covers this http://www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/__shared/assets/Environmental_Impact_Statement_Draft8338.pdfIf there is mixed use you will see that the office peak parking nees, the shopping peak, the hotel peak and the movie peak do not usually overlap.  So there can be an overlap in the use of parking spaces allowing you to provide less parking.As a developer they need to be able to attract tenants - so it is to their benefit to provide enough parking.  Parking will be fee based, but if you shop it can be validated.  Traffic - No action alternative - what will the traffic be in 10 years if no action is taken and what will the traffic be like in 10 years if the amendment is granted?  Based on this study the developer is charged impact fees to offset the additional traffic.  Retail might lower traffic as people do not have to drive to Bellevue.  The office space is where the traffic will be increased.  Been working on ways to get people into the office complex from the 405- and it will be going opposite Kirkland commuters.  When FileNet opened here 20% of their employees lived in Kirkland and 80% lived elsewhere and 5 years later 80% of employees lived in Kirkland.   Touchstone sees this happening with the ParkPlace development too.Will alternative transportation be encouraged?  Yes, they are talking to Sound Transit and will be working to encourage use of mass transit. Will have bike racks, showers for bikers, encourage employers to offer bus passes, etc.Only if they do not get the private amendment request will they do they pure office.  As long as they get the request they will do the mixed use.QFC has been moved and they want to keep it a little further away from other retail and keep the parking handy for the QFC.  It may be a little further from Kirkland way, but it has to be that way.Looking to break ground in late 2009-2010 in the absolute best case scenario.  Phase One will not be done until 2114 at the best.  Are hoping to keep any tenants who want to stay - like Pancake House.$800,000 million investmentJune 12th - planning commission meeting on this.Neighborhood Projects:
    • "Nettleton Site" project (old Green Funeral Home) - 25 new homes on State Street - moving forward next week
    • CamWest will be removing an outbuilding and the addition on the back of the Nettleton home in preparation for the move. The original house will be moved south after site work is completed.
    • Pace site – CamWest, the owner and the State Department of Ecology have reached an agreement on a new cleanup approach. The process should start moving and CamWest could start development as early as late 2009.
    • Andy Loos of SRM Development was contacted and told us that the Google site on 6th St. S. has been turned over to Google for interior improvement and they will be moving in late 2008. 
    • SRM will be demolishing the Assembly of God church building at 2nd Ave S and State in June. Construction will start when a tenant has been secured.
    • Second Ave South and State - demolishing church building, but are going to hold the property until they have a buyer.
    • B of A project - appeal was granted by the City Council. SRM will reassess the project once the Council publishes its findings in writing, which is slated to happen at the May 20 Council meeting. 
    • Merrill Gardens will be complete by year end. This is at the old Kirkland Pub site, east of the Bank of America.
    • IMAN Center Mosque on State Street is being remodeled but footprint and height will stay the same but with more windows
    • 10th Ave South - "10th and State" - seven houses will be build and three foundations are poured.  More information coming.
    • Second Ave. S. and Lake - Chafey what is happening? In holding until DRB is back up and running.  Probably mixed use.