The notes from the May 11, 2021 meeting of the Central Houghton Neighborhood Association are provided below. 

As noted at the meeting, the Houghton Community Council (HCC) recently approved Resolution 2021-3 to put the continuance of the Houghton community municipal corporation to a vote of the people that reside within the boundaries of the former Town of Houghton. Every four years, Houghton residents are asked to vote on whether the HCC remains part of our government process. 

The Community Council, which is part of Kirkland’s city government, resulted from an agreement made in 1968 when the voters of the former Town of Houghton agreed to consolidate with the City of Kirkland. One of the conditions of the consolidation was that Houghton retain a council with land use jurisdiction applying within the HCC boundaries. The Community Council has approval or disapproval (veto) authority over the Kirkland City Council decisions on certain types of land use decisions within the corporation boundaries. These include comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, conditional use permits, subdivision ordinances, subdivision plats, and planned unit developments. 

The November ballot also will include elections for seven Councilmember positions, who will serve four-year terms if the continuance of the HCC is approved. If you are a resident within the HCC boundaries (see map), you can file to run for one of these Council positions. The filing period runs from May 17 to 21. King County has produced an elections Manual with the necessary information on filing, including dates and forms. The Manual and other election information can be accessed here. More information on the HCC can be found on the City’s web site - Houghton Community Council. 


We also have open Board positions which we would love to fill to help bring more ideas to the Association on how to improve our role in informing the community and hopefully making Central Houghton and all of Kirkland a better place for all.

If you are interested in a Board position, volunteering to help on our grant projects, or have any other questions or comments, please email us at centralhoughton@gmail.com.


Larry Toedtli, President
Central Houghton Neighborhood Association

Google hopes you can join them at an exciting event! They'd love to have folks from the neighborhood join us as we officially open the new building.

Space is limited, so please ask those who wish to attend to RSVP here.
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City seeks input from residents and businesses to help shape Sound Transit 3 service in Kirkland

On Thursday, November 19, 2015, the City is hosting an Open House and Community Update at the Kirkland Performance Center (350 Kirkland Avenue) from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Staff will be available to answer questions about high capacity transit from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.  A formal presentation by City officials on high capacity transit in Kirkland will begin at 7:30 p.m., followed by a question and answer session. 

Putting Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on the Cross Kirkland Corridor will have a big impact on many here in Central Houghton - including the Google Campus, Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center (HENC), traffic on 108th, Lakeview Elementary school routes, home owners adjacent to the corridor, etc. . I'm not sure many people know about it. Please take a second to look at the materials on the city's website (see the link below) and tell your neighbors about it. It will give you a good idea of the City's work with Sound Transit and where we stand in the ST3 process.

​More information can be found on the city's website here.

Kirkland’s Sixth Street sidewalk contractor will start preparing the street—from Kirkland  Avenue to Google’s campus—for construction on Monday. Kamins Construction will spend its first week on the job surveying the site and preparing it for construction by installing various forms of erosion-control along it and by removing existing asphalt and concrete.

Project engineers expect Kamins Construction to finish construction by the middle of December 2015. 

At that point, residents will have a continuous sidewalk on which to walk from downtown Kirkland Avenue to the South Kirkland Park and Ride. 

Later on in 2016, the City of Kirkland will build traffic signals at Sixth Street’s intersections with Ninth Avenue South and at Kirkland Way. The project at Kirkland Way will reconfigure the intersection and replace its pavement surface with a concrete surface, which can better withstand the weight of transit.

Christian Knight 
Capital Improvement Program / Public Works
cknight@kirklandwa.gov
(425) 587-3831 

Kari Page provided an update on the new pedestrian bridge trail (at Waddell to the Houghton Shopping Center

• Currently in the permitting process and hope to start construction in Sept and end in October
  
• Creating a 5’ wide walkway with a small curb through apartments
  
• Taking out the junipers and putting in trees
  
• Crating 30’ bridge across the wetlands
  
• Making a crosswalk with flags and overhead street light to get to shopping center
  
• Concern was brought up for strollers and wheelchairs getting into the shopping center
  

Kari provided other updates on

• Stairs from the CKC at the railroad bridge down to 68th will be on the east-south side. They will be concrete. Open bidding happening in early Nov and hope to award at 2nd meeting in Nov.
  
• There will be a traffic light at 6th st and 9th st. with a crosswalk. This will allow Everest neighborhood kids to cross 6th st and take gravel path to CKC and on to Lakeview.
  
• Google is putting in turf on the Lakeview field – expected to be done in October – no lights on the field. Priorty use goes to schools, city and then Google
  
• Google is adding sidewalk to west side on 6th st right before Kirkland Ave
  

 
Concerns came up about trash on the CKC. City Maintenance crew comes thru once a day. Garbage cans are put by the streets so they can get service. Many sections of the trail have already been adopted. Big thanks to individual citizens who also pick up other’s trash. If you have a dog, please make sure to pick up their waste.
 
Key topic of the discussion was on planning for Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center. The key issue the Central Houghton Neighborhood Comprehensive Plan, the Everest Comprehensive Plan and the zoning are not aligned.

• Suggestions for joint meeting with other neighborhoods in October
  
• Continue to focus on Education, what we hear, and the process.
  
• Propose suggestions on how to get plans and zoning in alignment and get feedback from the group. 
  
• For next meeting have several options outlined for group to comment on
  
• Other suggestions for next steps – present to HCC and talk to Nelson Group
  

 
Links from Meeting
Recap of post-its from April’s meeting about the HENC
Recap of post-its from what we liked about other neighborhood centers
 
Next Meeting
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at 7:00pm
Houghton Fire Station 22
6602 108th Avenue NE
 
 
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