The Kirkland Planning Commission met on February 8, 2024, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chamber for a study session focused on two policy briefings for the 2044 Comprehensive Plan: the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Element and the Sustainability, Climate and Environment (SCE) Element. Commissioners reviewed draft goals and policies, asked clarifying questions, and provided extensive feedback to guide staff revisions. The meeting included two public comments and concluded with administrative updates.
Senior Planner Lindsay Levine presented an overview of the Parks element, including community engagement themes (equity, small parks, tree canopy, shade), study issues, and draft goals and policies. Commissioners provided input on a range of policies:
Senior Planner David Barnes presented an overview of the SCE element, highlighting key themes from outreach, study issues, and draft revisions. Commissioners reviewed several highlighted policies and provided feedback:
Okay. I would like to call to order the February 8th, 2024 Planning Commission meeting. And we will start with roll call. Gotcha, Alan. Present. Brea Heiser. Here. Karen Jacobson. Here. Angela Roseman. Here. Randy Rutherford. Here. Sandy Single. Here. Thanks. Great. It is so nice to have all the commissioners here. Two meetings in a row, I believe, which is great. So tonight on the agenda, uh, we have a briefing for the comprehensive plan on parks and recreation and open space. And second, we have sustainability, client, and environmental element policy briefing. Uh before we get started, are there any comments from the audience? And if you are online, uh, if you could raise a virtual hand. Uh please step forward, state your name and uh three minutes. Kevin Adams, um uh Kirkland resident. I've uh shared email with a few folks here this last week um regarding uh some long-term planning for the 85th uh station plan. And my question was um uh it's regarding a potential for the pedestrian bridge across 90th Street. And um I've been told that it's likely uh it's a proposal part of a long-term plan potentially, and my question was more just what's the process or the timing for some of those decisions to get made and how does that actually come to fruition for some of those longer term proposals and is that a one to three year, five to ten, ten to twenty, sort of just uh timing for some of those things. So that was my question to kind of understand that timing and process. You know, I'm gonna hand this over to Allison because you still have a few minutes there and she can probably update you best. I think she's responded to me already. Uh but it'd be great to do actually maybe if there's more detail. Yeah, so right now that project, the pedestrian overpass at 90th Street is on the long-term CIP, so it's a on a 20-year project list. Um what it would take to kind of prioritize that is if for whatever reason the city prioritized it or um probably less so for a project like that, but if it was something like a an intersection improvement in the 20-year CIP plan if there was development nearby that then made it necessary sooner rather than later, the six-year CIP list, which is the list of funded projects, gets updated every year. So every year we take a look at that full 20-year list, sort of rearrange it to make sure that we're funding the right things in the short term. So right now that overpass is still on the long-term list. Um as you can imagine, it's a pretty pricey one. Yeah, I can. Um so it's yeah, it's not funded right now. Okay, okay, that's great. And and I potentially am not for it, uh, but thank you for all the information. And uh that's why I was just wondering. So it's a i is that a yearly process then for the six-year plan to be re I guess updated. Is that what happens? That happens every year. Um, and actually the planning commission usually holds a public hearing on the updating of that six-year list, um, usually in about November of every year. So that'll happen again towards the year. And the six-year list is the projects that are shown on the website. I'd need to look at exactly what website, but it technically lives in our comprehensive plan in the capital facilities element. Okay, right.