The Kirkland City Council met on September 16, 2025, for a study session and regular meeting. Key actions included ratifying an emergency proclamation for King County's Eastside Interceptor repair, adopting code amendments for co-living housing, and approving miscellaneous zoning amendments including an artificial turf exemption.
King County Wastewater Treatment Division Emergency Exemption Request: Deputy Director Sarah Olson presented an urgent repair of the Eastside Interceptor (84-inch concrete pipe, 1960s) under the Cross Kirkland Corridor (CKC). Leaking joints and soil instability risk structural failure; a pipe burst could release up to 20 million gallons/day of untreated wastewater into Lake Washington via Houghton B1 stream. King County will install a 3,000-foot above-ground bypass (18-inch HDPE pipe), requiring a full CKC closure from September 29 for two weeks, then a reduced-width reopening (5 feet) for 6-8 weeks of joint repairs. Eight pumps will run 24/7 with sound attenuation. Detour routes via Lake Washington Boulevard will be signed. The city issued a notice to proceed with conditions. Councilmembers emphasized robust communication and traffic safety. Resolution R-5695 ratifying the emergency proclamation was adopted 7-0.
Adoption of Code Amendments for Co-Living Housing to Comply with State Law (Ordinance O-4912): Senior Planner Martha Rubardt explained state House Bill 1998 requires co-living housing (lockable sleeping units with shared kitchens) to be permitted on lots where 6+ units could be developed, within 1/4 mile of major transit stops. Two Sound Transit Stride bus stops on I-405 qualify. Staff recommended minimum compliance: new Chapter 111 in the zoning code, counting co-living units as 1/4 dwelling unit for density, hybrid parking rate compliant with state parking bill, exemption from affordable housing requirements. Public comments supported the approach. Council adopted O-4912 7-0.
Adoption of 2025 Miscellaneous Code Amendments Relating to Zoning and Land Use (Ordinance O-4913): Deputy Director Allison Zike presented the annual package of ~25-30 minor amendments. A council-directed change from May 20, 2025 to increase artificial turf exemption from 50% to 75% of lot coverage was included, based on Planning Commission recommendation after a public hearing on August 28. Councilmembers Neal Black and John Tymczyszyn proposed an amendment to fully exempt artificial turf (100% exemption). Debate centered on whether the regulation was aesthetic or environmental; supporters argued lack of demonstrable environmental harm and alignment with neighboring cities, while opponents cited unknown microplastic and ecological impacts. The amendment passed 5-2 (Mayor Curtis and Councilmember Falcone opposed). The amended ordinance then passed 7-0.
Hello, everybody. I'd like to call to order the city council meeting of September 16th, 2025. We have a little bit of an echo in here. Councilmember Black here, not IT. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Tim Chisholm. Here. Councilmember Black. Here. Councilmember Sweet. Councilmember Falcone. Here. Councilmember Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Arnold. Here. Mayor Curtis. Here. All present. Thank you. Gives us a certain amount of gravitas. All right. Our study session tonight is on two items. First, we will receive an overview of the Kirkland Municipal Court. Second, we will receive an update on the Kirkland Fire Mobile Integrated Health Program. 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, this is our first of our overviews of the Kirkland municipal court. This was a uh city council city work program item. We have two special guests here tonight, our municipal court presiding judge, uh Judge John Olson, and also our court administrator Aaron Wheeler, who has recently appointed, has been with the court for 25 years, so she has got all the knowledge in the back. So uh tonight, as for the our two guests to provide an overview of the court or interested in questions and any follow-ups that you want to have at the future sessions. You saw in the council packet, the sort of order of sessions that are coming up in the future, which will be more specific about other topics. But at the very end of this, we're also if you have any thoughts on those topics that you want to give to us as well. Staff and the court can be better prepared to discuss those in the future. So we have about an hour reserved for this topic and then half an hour for the second topic, so I'll keep an eye on the clock. Um with that, I would like to turn over to the honorable John Olson. Thank you. Thank you for having us here. Um Aaron and I have been uh talking about this and and trying to come up with something. It took me I don't know, three months to figure out that uh slides aren't the right way to do this. These these aren't uh these aren't memos that uh we need to work with. So we're gonna do a little bit better job next time, and that that's on me. Um as Kurt said, Aaron was hired to uh replace Tracy a couple months ago. Yes, yeah, so it was a it was a great process. We had uh a number of city uh police, uh, other people from HR uh participating in the interview process. Aaron did great and uh was a unanimous choice to select her, and we made a choice we made the decision uh within minutes of of the interviews being over. She just really did a good job.