The Kirkland City Council met on July 1, 2025, beginning with a study session at 5:30 p.m., followed by a regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. The study session covered responses to the Houghton Village Request for Proposals and an update on the Kirkland Safety Action Plan and Speed Limit Setting Policy. The regular meeting included public comments, a special presentation on the city's supported employment program, a proclamation for Disability Pride Month, a consent calendar approval, and business items on the Critical Areas Ordinance update, Peter Kirk Pool enclosure options, and Transportation Benefit District (TBD) improvements. The Council took several votes, including approving two TBD improvement options, authorizing a proclamation for Junior League Softball World Series Week, and initiating a public hearing on a hospital levy lid lift. The meeting concluded with an executive session on potential litigation.
Environmental Program Coordinator Anna Heckman and Senior Planner Jen Anderer briefed the Council on state-required updates to the Critical Areas Ordinance (Chapters 85 and 90). The update must be completed by December 31, 2025, based on best available science and the 2044 Comprehensive Plan. Staff identified minor required changes and opportunities for streamlining permit processes (e.g., peer review thresholds). Outreach includes web pages and coordination with neighboring cities. The Council will receive a formal proposal in the fall.
Parks Deputy Director John Lloyd presented four options for enclosing the pool, all including a $7 million baseline scope (separate pool mechanical systems, new bathhouse/entry, family changing rooms, infrastructure repairs). Options ranged from:
Parks Director Lynn Waxtra noted up to $18 million in available capital funding (including potential King County Parks Levy and grants) but stressed opportunity costs. Operating expenses would increase by $1.4–1.7 million annually (general fund). Council feedback: Most members preferred Option 2 (activity pool enclosure) but wanted to pause for more information on the Kraken community facility, the August parks levy vote, and potential partnerships with existing pools. Staff will return in September/October with updated data.
Capital Projects Supervisor Laura Drake presented options for two TBD projects:
All right, I'd like to call to order the city council meeting of July 1st, 2025. Before the roll is called, I'd like to note that Councilmill Pascal is joining us remotely this evening. City Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Tim Chisholm. Councilmember Black. Here. Councilmember Sweet. Here. Councilmember Falcone. Here. Councilmember Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Arnold. Here. Mayor Curtis. Here. All right. Our study session tonight is on two items. First, we'll have a discussion on the responses to the Houghton Village request for proposals. Second, we'll receive an update on the Kirkland Safety Action Plan and Speed Limit Setting Policy. We expect to reconvene our regular meeting at 7 30. City Manager. Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Deputy Mayor, members of the council. So yes, we have about 45 minutes for each topic. You're going to hear from two presenters tonight. We are going to have some time for questions following each presentation of the presenters, but we're also going to reserve some time after both of them to ask questions about other options and questions you may have going forward. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Alison Zyke, our deputy director of planning and building to kick us off. Thank you, City Manager, and good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members. As uh City Manager mentioned, uh the layout for tonight. I have just a few slides to kind of lay the groundwork, remind you where we're at on the Houghton Village project, and then uh we'll move forward and let you hear from our proposers. So presenting first tonight from the proposers is um will be inland group and the together center. They're represented by Joey Lonsford tonight, and then we'll have a presentation from Imagined Housing in Methoon, and they're represented by E Zhao and Casey Wong tonight. So I'll let them reintroduce themselves as they come up. We'll be playing a little bit of musical chairs, but should be a fun time. So just to remind you all kind of where this all started. In 2022, the city purchased Houghton Village the Houghton Village property to help realize council's vision for public purposes and the priorities we've heard from council on this project were affordable housing, potentially school space, nonprofit program space, neighborhood shops, vibrant retail, the potential for arts and cultural space, and maybe city recreational space. I think council's acknowledged we might not be able to get all of those things, but those were really kind of our guiding light as we worked through the development plan over the past year or so, and then also the things that we talked to the community about about potentially getting at the Houghton Village site. It's what we asked the proposers to kind of respond to as they looked at the site. So we last talked to you about this project in January when you directed staff to go ahead and issue an a request for interest or a request for proposals to really gauge from the development community. Is there anyone out there that's interested in partnering with the city to make this vision happen? And so staff did move forward with that. We issued a request for proposals back in March. Um during while the proposal or the RFP was open, we held an information session to help people understand what we were really looking for. The RFP closed on June 2nd. We did receive four submittals. Three were full proposals in response to the RFP. One was a letter with an explanation of why that team chose not to submit, but what might encourage them to submit at a future time. What additional information they might need that could make them submit at a future time.