October 7 Meeting Minutes

Upcoming Events

• Solarize Kirkland Workshop – Tuesday, Oct 13th at 7pm City Hall
• November CHNA Meeting – Wed, Nov 4th at 7pm Fire Station 22

NorthWest University Master Plan
John Kappler has been appointed as the representative  from the city to work with NW University. NW University is in discussions to update their Master Plan and “uses for the campus”. They have been in talks the neighbors to the north on usage of the fields. Some of the discussion has been contentious. The update is to cover the next 20 years. They will be looking at use of facilities, definition of use, traffic, noise, and student definition. There are no expectations of changing boundaries.  John Jordan, CFO of the college will be sending out information on the plan.  Dr. Joseph Castleberry, President, will be meeting with neighbors. The city is creating a listserve so all can get access and get information. If you have concerns, you can contact Jon Kappler.  

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​Solarize Kirkland
Paula Del Giudice spoke about Solarize Kirkland program. Paula works for a non-profit, Pollution Prevention and they are working with the city to encourage the reduction of source pollution. This is their 3rd campaign. They are bringing together residents who are interested in rooftop solar panels. The intent is to stimulate conversation, stimulate excitement about solar and engage in public/private partnerships. Goal is to get 66 homeowners under contract.  Already had 4 workshops and one more on Tuesday. 142 homeowners have signed up for site assessments, 4 installs, and 31 under contract. Volunteers reviewed 45 responses to an RPF and selected Northwest Electric and Solar. 7-10% discount is given on this campaign along with state incentives and net metering by PSE. For more information, please attend the seminar on Tues, 10/13 at 7pm in City Hall or contact Paula at pdelgiudice@pprc.org 206-352-2050.
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Proposition 1 and the ARC Center - Pros and Cons
We heard pros and cons to Proposition 1. John Kappler stood in for Rick Whitney for “the con” while Jamie Rector presented the “pro”. Both presenters had compelling points to make, below is a summary:
Con

• Not opposed to the ARC, opposed to how they are proposing to pay for the Aquatic and Recreational Community Center (ARC).
• Don’t want to set up a separate tax entity
• Disappointed in the city and the marketing; not actually giving facts, not being transparent
• The proposed cost is a large range. The calculations for the resident cost is based on average house cost for KING COUNTY, not Kirkland. Kirkland housing is higher than King County.
• There is no recourse or controls around the spending of Metropolitan Park District (MPD) – the taxing district or city are the only ones who can make changes and they are the same entity.
• The MPD is unaccountable to the citizens
• If operating costs are not covered by fees then taxes can potentially go up. Operating costs are a very wide range from $50M - $75M.
• The MDP isn’t just for the ARC, it covers other park entities
• NKCC currently operates at a loss

Pro

• There is a strong need for a pool considering the growth of the city and the pending closure of Juanita Pool. For 15 years this has been in the making; over 3000 volunteer hours have gone into getting the ARC to this point.
• The new facility will have a warm and “cold” water pool, basketball/volleyball, and meeting room for 250 and hardwood floor studios
• There are two sites identified; Christ Church Site (behind Fred Meyer) 12 acres and North Kirkland Community Center (NKCC) 4 acres.
• The alternative to MPD was to do a bond. In order to do a bond, you have to be at a certain point in the development process. The city can’t narrow down the large cost range because the two sites are very different and one site would still need to be purchased. By doing a MPD, the city is only making a modest investment verse spending money to develop plans before putting to a vote.
• Of the 17 MPDs in the state, many are operating close to the rate they came out with.
• Operating costs are expected to be covered by fees
• School district is expected to be a renter and will be expected to pay fees. School currently has a low rate to Wave Aquatics because they own the pool.

Thanks to John and Jamie for your time and points of view.

Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center
To move forward on HENC (Houghton Everest Neighborhood Center), we  presented 5 options to be voted and commented on by those who attended. Unfortunately, we did not get the turn out we were expected so the voting was light. See attached document for details on options and the results.
 
Next steps in this process? We are open to suggestions. Based on the feedback from the October meeting, we will review the options and potentially make updates.  We will see if we can schedule time to present to Houghton Community Council. Do you have ideas on how we can get more feedback? Let us know!

Here's a link to the pdf of the options file:
File Size:	120 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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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