Minutes from Central Houghton Neighborhood Association May 6, 2015 Meeting

Storm Water Solutions 
Julia Vasiliauskas, a science teacher from the International Community School (ICS) came and spoke about Storm Water Solutions. Her 6th grade science scholars are presenting an information night on Wednesday, May 13th from 6:00 - 7:00pm at ICS. One of her students from the Rain Barrell group gave an expert talk about how rain barrels collect rain runoff which can be used to water our lawns and gardens. If you want more information about please stop by the school on May 13th.

Kirkland Parks Foundation
Sally Otten from the Kirkland Parks Foundation spoke to us about the work her group does to conceptualize, plan, fund and implement park improvements here in Kirkland. The Kirkland Parks foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which uses technology and crowdsourcing to lower barriers for everyday citizens to contribute money for improvements to our parks system. Their lead project right now is a picnic shelter at Waverly Park. They are working closely with the Rotary on this project. 

For more information go to their website at http://www.kirklandparksfoundation.org. You can pick a project from https://www.kirklandparksfoundation.org/our-projects/ if you’d like to give money to something which you find particularly appealing. Sally said they were building our their database of potential donors, so even if you don’t donate, it would help them to register.

Audience questions included how does what the parks foundation fit with the public process usually followed with the Parks Department. Sally stated that the foundation’s role is to provide only an avenue for private funding and that it sees no role for the foundation to pick and choose which projects to move forward with. 

Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center Post-its Summary
Brian went over the results from last month’s CHNA Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center (HENC) post-it fest. In his Power Point presentation he summarized why the center was being revisited in time for Kirkland to update the Comprehensive Plan in 2016. We want to bring forth areas of consensus as well as highlight areas of differing opinions.

The tally for the post-its on the poster boards were as follows:

Other Entities - 10
Overall Process - 12
Final Outcome and 2016 - 5
Boundary Changes - 9
Mixed Use - 31
Transportation - 35
Other topics - 6 
There were some areas of agreement - most people like the idea of retail in the HENC. Generally, traffic was considered a problem and and any increases should be kept to a minimum and its impact be mitigated. 

Moving forward, Brian presented the idea that we focus on the two topics which got the most votes: Transportation and Mixed Use. He also presented the idea of a survey to summarize opinions. Some people thought that would be a good idea but there was pushback that it shouldn’t trivialize complex choices. Also, there was concern that there should be more education before before any results be presented via a survey.

A couple of different ideas were tossed about for collecting survey data. Everyone agreed that we should try to gather more opinions than just the people who show up for the monthly meetings. A postcard survey mailing was floated but could be too expensive. People seemed to like the idea of setting up tables outside of Met Market and PCC to collect survey feedback. In any event, it was agreed that the CHNA board probably needs to meet before June’s monthly meeting to explore exactly how to move forward.

60th Street Entrance to the CKC - Cleanup
Monday May 18th at around 5pm Lisa will be leading the clearing of the 60th Street path connection to the CKC. This is part of one Neighborhood Safety Program project that we submitted and was very well ranked. (see this link for more info on the Neighborhood Safety Program)  Lisa would like invite any and all  to join us at the corner of NE 60th Street and 104th Ave NE. The City will provide tools and rubber gloves but I recommend leather gloves, as we will be dealing with blackberry bushes and ivy. Dress appropriately for weather and keep fingers crossed for sunshine.

Miscellaneous
Others in attendance included Kirkland City Council members Toby Nixon and Dave Asher and an officer from the Kirkland Police Department. 

Agenda and Brian's presentation follows:

Don't forget the annual Eastside Subaru Mother’s Day Half Marathon and 5K set for May 10 at Juanita Beach Park will mark the first major event on the Cross Kirkland Corridor (CKC) since its completion and ribbon cutting in late January. The course will start at Northwest University and end at the Juanita Beach Park. Approximately 4.5 of the 13 miles will be run along the Cross Kirkland Corridor. The race will also go along 108th and Lake Washington Blvd. For more information look on the race website. Here's a map of the race course:

Did you know that the Washington State Department of Transportation will be offering tours of the new floating bridge starting in late May. For more information check out the WA DOT page. 

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 7:00pm
Houghton Fire Station 22
6602 108th Avenue NE

Agenda for May 6th Meeting
1) Items from the Audience
2) Kirkland Parks Foundation Representative to talk about the organization’s work
3) Discussion of HENC’s Major Topics and how to move forward for June’s meeting
4) Quick update from CHNA board – Lakeview PTSA and HoughtDown
 
Minutes from April 1st Meeting
 This meeting we dedicated most of the time to discussion the Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center (HENC). During this meeting we used post-its to collect neighborhood feedback. The results can be found here. June 3rd is the next meeting we plan to get the neighborhood together to continue the discussion. Please mark your calendars to attend.
 
Also during the April meeting, Kari Page provide an update on plans to add a connect between the CKC and the Houghton Center. Neighbors provided feedback, suggestions and concerns regarding the foot traffic in this area.
 

Thanks and check out what is going on in the neighborhood at:
On the web at http://www.houghtonlives.com
On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/CentralHoughton

It was a great day to be biking out on the Cross Kirkland Corridor. Here are some pictures of Google's new building. The pedestrian bridge between the old (okay, less new) building and the new building is really taking shape. I also threw in a picture of the CKC bridge over 68th - I love that bridge!