Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Kirkland Planning Commission met on October 8, 2026, for a study session on the Neighborhood Stores and Services Code Amendment Project, a briefing on state legislative compliance, a public hearing on miscellaneous code amendments, and approval of prior meeting minutes.
Staff presented findings from community engagement, including a survey and tabling events. Common themes included support for home occupations as a way to start businesses affordably and concerns about potential negative effects of more intense commercial uses.
Home Occupations: Commissioners broadly agreed to remove or revise regulations that are difficult to enforce, such as limits on deliveries and client visits, and instead apply the same non-observable standards as for residential uses. Observable criteria like outside storage, vehicles, and signage would be retained. Commissioner Bunyall noted enforcement challenges and that the 500-square-foot limit triggers commercial building code occupancy requirements. Commissioner Rutherford suggested allowing food trucks and focusing on externally observable criteria. Commissioner Nolan argued that if a rule cannot be enforced, it should not exist. Vice Chair Medea supported retaining limits on observable items. Chair Jacobson summarized consensus: treat home occupations like residential uses for non-observable impacts.
Neighborhood Serving Commercial: Commissioners addressed several policy questions:
Location and Access: Commissioners agreed that neighborhood commercial should not be limited to corners or areas with sidewalks, as such restrictions could exclude underserved neighborhoods. Commissioner Bunyall raised concerns about ADA accessibility for customers. Staff noted that 75% of Kirkland streets have sidewalks on at least one side and 86% of arterials/collectors do.
Next Steps: The discussion will continue at the October 22, 2026 meeting, where staff will present specific options on size, location, and use limitations.
Staff reviewed state legislation requiring or permitting local action. The commission provided guidance on three policy choices:
Staff presented a package of minor code amendments, including definition clarifications, removal of obsolete zone references, updates to terms (e.g., replacing "alien" with "permanent resident card"), and technical revisions related to sewer connections and permit renewals. No public testimony was offered. Commissioner Nolan moved to recommend the amendments to city council as drafted; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Minutes from May 28 and June 25, 2026, were approved unanimously without correction.
All right. I will call this meeting of the planning commission to order. We'll start with a roll call. Margaret Bunyall. Here. And now Sheree Chaudry. Aaron Jacobson. Here. Gina Medea. Here. Julia Nolan. Here. Scott Ricer. Here. Rodney Rutherford. Here. All right. Thank you. Since we have a quorum, we'll continue on. Um first is comments from the audience. I see no one in person and no one on Zoom. So I think we can just continue on. Next we have special presentations, which there are none. And uh I will pause here. I think we've previously discussed um whether we want to have the order uh changed for public hearings if we want them up front. Um seeing no one in the audience. Um seeing no one in the audience. Uh I don't think it matters that much whether we have the public hearing at the beginning or at the end. Um so I think we'll just proceed as is, but uh I intend to have a break um after uh before the third item, so before the public hearing. And with that, we'll get into the study session for the neighborhood stores and services code amendment project briefing. All right, thank you. And then I'll note for the record that we have um Commissioner Chaudry joining the meeting. Um so tonight, um this is your second study session for the neighborhood services and stores project. Um hopefully you enjoyed reading through um a lot of the great work that um the team has done on community engagement, um, tried to present that in a way where it was kind of structured to answer a lot of the questions that we heard from the planning commission and city council so far. Um tonight, Leandra is gonna be leading you through those policy questions that were in your packet. Um ideally we'd be able to get some really specific feedback from the planning commission tonight that we can take back to our desks and start writing draft code with. And so um we might we might push a little bit to get um some specifics from you if if we don't hear that and then um would appreciate um we might kind of ask to see if there's consensus on certain items or make sure we're kind of hearing what direction you want. Um I will remind you though that you're not locking anything in tonight. Um there will still be um maybe another study session and a public hearing, and so um specifics tonight that we're we're getting can still be adjusted down the road, but it's helpful to have something to draft that code with. So with that, I will hand it over to Leandria to lead you through it. Great. Thank you. Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair, and Commissioners. Just as a reminder, this is a project to assess changes to our allowances for home occupations and to assess new allowances. New potential allowances for uh neighborhood scale commercial services and uses okay. Uh