The Kirkland City Council met on March 21, 2023, for a study session on parks funding and a regular meeting addressing a permanent supportive housing agreement, budget adjustments, legislative updates, special events code changes, and a resolution supporting King County's Re+ Pledge. The council took final action on several items, including approval of the permanent supportive housing agreement with multiple amendments.
Thank you. We're live, Mayor. Recording in progress. I'd like to call to order the City Council meeting of March the twenty-first, two thousand thirty-three. Well, two thousand twenty-three to order. Tonight's meeting is a hybrid meeting. Community members are welcome to join us either in person or remotely, through Zoom or by telephone. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Nixon. Councilmember Black. Here. Council Member Curtis. Councilmember Falcone. Here. Council Member Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Arnold. Here. Thank you. Our study session tonight is on a parks funding exploratory committee recommendation for a potential park ballot measure and also to review a draft recreation and aquatic center feasibility study. So as you all know, I am remote today due to a positive COVID test. But we have the two deputy city managers are actually in the audience in the chamber. So in the unlikely event I freeze or get shut down, they will take over for me. So thank you all for your flexibility. Thank you for having us this evening. We will be bringing the results of the Parks Funding Exploratory Committee with six months of work behind it. And we have several staff members here this evening who are going to be talking to you. On screen, we have our deputy sit uh deputy department director, John Lloyd. Um, behind me, we have Hilary De La Cruz, who is our management analyst and the project lead for the ballot measure. We have Mary Gardaki, our park program and planning manager, who is the project lead for the feasibility study. Uh, we also have Jason Fylan, our parks manager, and Sarah Rock, our communication specialist. And over here, we also have Sarah Schellenbarger, our recreation manager. So lots of folks here to help answer questions. All right, on that note, I'm gonna hand it over to Hillary to get started. Good evening, Council members. In tonight's presentation, we are going to cover the information from the PFEC report, which you all received in your council packets. We have 48 slides, which include many photos of PFEC in addition in action and charts and data from PFEC meetings. We're going to cover highlights about the PFEC process and do a deep dive into PFEC results. And on the screen, you'll just see the outline of the materials included in the PFEC report. And tonight tonight we are going to be seeking direction from council about three, these kind of three topic areas, including exploring alternate facility sizes, council's thoughts about the PFEC recommendation, and community survey scope and timeline, and we'll revisit those at the end of the presentation. So before we dive into the PFEC process, we wanted to start by giving you a preview of the PFEC based package recommendation so that you can keep it in mind while we go through the rest of the presentation. At the March 2nd meeting, 92% of PFEC members agreed on a base element base package with elements that are on the screen. At least one aquatic this um, excuse me, this base package would include at least one aquatics and recreation facility, plus the top five other elements which are on the screen. So that would be nine year-round restrooms, green loop trail segments, seven sports courts, team programs and KTAW operations, and increased lifeguard hours and water safety programs. Lynn will talk more in depth about this recommendation after I share the PFEC process that led to this recommendation, but we wanted you to have this in mind while we're going through the presentation. So what brought us here today? The 2022 PROS Plan update had input from over 4,700 Kirkland community members that identify community needs, which were then turned into potential ballot measure elements considered by PFEC. I just wanted to share two of the highlights of the survey with the PROS plan. When responding to what the most important needs are for improvement, the top needs were an indoor aquatic center, new parks in the northeast area of Kirkland, indoor recreation center, new parks in my neighborhood, more free and non-fee-based special events and activities, splash pads, and other water play features. And then when asked what actions would increase your participation, top actions included year-round restrooms, recreation center or indoor aquatics complex, better lighting and security, better condition maintenance of parks and facilities, and improved communications about offerings, more parking, and more facilities or amenities.