At it's next meeting on Tuesday December 12, the Kirkland City Council is scheduled to review and take final action on  ordinances related to changes for the Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center (HENC). The ordinances will amend the Central Houghton Neighborhood Plan and Everest Neighborhood Plan (which are part of the City's Comprehensive Plan) for the areas covering the HENC commercial district at the intersection of NE 68th Street with 6th Street S/108th Avenue NE. In addition, the ordinances will revise the zoning for the neighborhood center. This is the culmination of over 18 months of meetings on the HENC amendments. The staff packets for City Council meetings are usually available the Friday afternoon before the meeting. The City Council agendas can be found here.

The following provides an overview of the revisions for the Neighborhood Plans and associated zoning. It also summarizes options for property owners/developers for increasing the height of buildings in some locations. You can write to the Council to share your thoughts on the proposals and ordinances. You also can attend the meeting and speak during items from the audience. Comments during the items from the audience portion of the City Council meeting are limited to three speakers in support and three people against the subject topics. If you want to speak during that part of the meeting, get there early to sign up.

Under the base Plan and zoning, the existing maximum building height of 30-feet would be maintained throughout the HENC. Under the base  30-foot height limit, the Neighborhood Plans and zoning would be revised to require projects in the core area (called HENC1, including the Metropolitan Market, Menchie's, and PCC sites, as well as the offices adjacent to the Cross Kirkland Corridor- see area 1 in below graphic ) to go through the City's Design Review process. The revised zoning also would limit the amount of office space in a development and would also require wider sidewalks and improved connections to the Cross Kirkland Corridor.

Developments in the core HENC1 area could increase their building height to 35-feet (which would allow three stories) if certain conditions are met. Those conditions include requirements for a 20,000 square foot grocery, hardware, or drug store to be part of the development. In addition, minimum areas for public open space/gathering places and green building standards would need to be met.  Residential densities would be capped at 48 units per acre, with 10 percent of the units meeting the City's affordable housing criteria. The third story would need to be stepped-back from the second story.

At it's November 21 meeting, the Council directed staff to include amendments that would allow two additional stories on the properties north of NE 68th Street between 6th Street S and The Cross Kirkland Corridor (CKC).  The following conditions would need to be met In order to obtain the additional two stories:

• The additional two stories are only authorized by a legislative Council-approved Master Plan, which the Council may approve or deny.
• The Master Plan must include providing a southbound right turn lane from 6th Street S to NE 68th Street. The turn lane must be built per approved Kirkland Public Works Department plans.
• The Master Plan must consolidate the property on the northwest corner of NE 68th Street and 6th Street S and property or properties west of the corner property. (This would include the area outlined in white below, as well as the existing offices between the area in the white boundary and the CKC.)
• The Master Plan must comply with all proposed regulations that apply to the three story, 35 foot height option except for the 48/unit per acre density limit.
• The Master Plan must include a circulation plan and a driveway consolidation plan for the Everest portion of the Houghton Everest Business District north of NE 68th Street.

​The notes from the November 14, 2017 Central Houghton Neighborhood Meeting are available below followed by Northwest University's presentation on the status of the update to their master plan.
​
If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at:
centralhoughton@gmail.com​

At its meeting on November 8, the Kirkland City Council discussed the potential to provide incentives to allow increased building heights up to 5 stories (compared to the 3 stories in the Planning Commission recommendations) on the Menchie’s and PCC site (see white box on below map) if the developers fund construction of the southbound right turn lane from 6th Street S to westbound NE 68th Street. The City Council was split 3-3 (Councilmember Nixon was not in attendance).

You can watch the start of the staff presentation at the 2:05:50 time stamp of the video of the meeting (here). The City Council discussion starts at about 2:09:00 of the video. 

The Council will discuss the potential incentives again at their November 21 meeting when all seven members are expected to be present. 

​The City Council's schedule is to take action on the HENC Plan and associated zoning at its meeting on Tuesday, December 12 (the CHNA meeting will be held on Thursday December 14 because of the conflict with the City Council meeting).