Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
On October 6, 2026, the Kirkland City Council held a study session from 5:30 p.m. covering citywide speed limit changes, a comprehensive emergency management framework, and a short-term rental code briefing, followed by a regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. that included honors, public testimony, a special presentation from EvergreenHealth, and action on multiple business items. The meeting adjourned after 10:30 p.m.
Hello everyone. I'd like to call to order the city this city council meeting of October 6, 2026. Before asking the clerk to call roll for tonight's regular meeting, I'd like to note that councilmember Arnold is joining us remotely. City Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Tim Chisholm. Here. Councilmember Arnold. Here. Councilmember Prem. Here. Councilmember Falcone. Here. Councilmember Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Black. Here. Mayor Curtis. Here. Thank you. Our study, we're ambitious tonight. Our study session is on three items. First, we'll have an overview of the citywide speed limit changes. Second, we will have a review of the comprehensive emergency management framework. Third, we will have a briefing on the short-term rental code. We expect to reconvene our regular meeting at 7:30. City manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Deputy Mayor members of the council. Yeah, so we're gonna kind of go through three. I think we're gonna make it. We've got about half an hour for each one. We're starting off with the speed limit changes. Our transportation engineering supervisor Jennifer Palmer and our public works deputy directors are also here to assist if needed. So that I'll turn it over to Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members. Tonight is the first touch on the this work item, Citywide Speed Limit Changes, and staff is seeking council feedback on a number of items to help guide our implementation of the citywide speed limit changes. This project advances the city's vision for a safe connected and multimodal transportation network. It aligns with our vision zero goal of zero transportation related deaths or serious injuries and a reduction of all crashes by 2035. And we get there by using the safe system approach, which is a multi-layered approach to transportation safety that acknowledges that humans make mistakes and reduces the risk of injuries within our transportation systems. As background, in 2024, Kirkland adopted a transportation strategic plan. And in that plan, um we reaffirmed our vision zero goal. Um then mostly in 2025, um, we developed the transportation safety action plan. A key outcome uh from that plan was revising the way the city sets speed limits on arterial um streets using a data-driven and context sensitive approach. Um then we adopted the safety action plan at the very end of 25. Um, and then we'll begin implementing the speed limit changes in 2027.