ANd you are right Murph, we have been offered no other mediated choice of 6 or seven stories. So it’s hard to be for redevelopment, but against what is being proposed. Unfortunately we can not impose any restrictions on what the developer has to include, which is why we should be wary of the promises. If he can’t find someone to fill the space designated movie theater at his rate, then he can do with it what he wants. Same for hotel and gym. Likewise, has anyone asked if QFC is willing to host the hardware store we keep getting dangled in front of us.

My point…there are a lot of questions. I sure hope someone is asking them.

As for Ken…I think he is working hard to develop a solution because he loves Kirkland. He is very civically minded and has spoken out on many issues, including annexation. The citizens are lucky yo have someone has organized and willing to lay out his own dollars.

As for Jim, I don’t think everyone there was part of the organized assembly…and I don’t fault organization, unless it prevents the citizens who will bear the burden, the tax paying citizens (in spite of one person’s comments, we do contribute via property taxes and where we choose to lay our sales taxes out), have an equal and maybe even more of a say, than the business owners.

As for the hearing last week, I do not believe many people fully understand what they are “voting” for at this juncture. The vote is for changing the zoning code from 5 stories office use to mixed use with a possibility of higher stories as I understand it. Once the zoning is modified, then the debate of height, architectural design and public spaces will start in earnest.

Touchstone has done a great job of outreach and their proposed project has become better as a result of the input. That said, I hope the City can hold them accountable and write it into an approval that this mixed use facility will include a movie theater complex, a hotel, an athletic club and affordable retail for small service related business. My primary concern is that they will not be able to secure a hotel and be “forced” to turn the hotel tower into more office space. If a hotel cannot be secured, I believe the hotel tower should be required to be residential, not more office. That would truly be mixed use. What if Touchstone cannot secure a movie theater that pencils…off to Bellevue once again. I am tired of driving to Bellevue, Redmond Town Center and University Village for my everyday shopping and entertainment.

You raise a good point. Some people are not pro or con, but in the middle on this and other issues.

I, for one, am totally for a mixed use complex with active retail, open plazas, and public art. I’ve said all along that whatever is decided with Parkplace with regard to building height, etc., it must be a place for those of us in Kirkland to shop, dine, and congregate. A little bit of Redmond Town Center would be a good thing for the community. I do not want to see a large office complex plopped down in the middle of our city with people who drive in to work and leave at the end of the day. Parkplace needs to maintain a sense of vibrancy and community for Kirkland. It’s important to maintain and enhance our community.

Look at the Google buildings. What if they were stood on end instead of laying down flat (per the zoning rules)? With the same square footage there would be beautiful open space and view corridors. The way those buiildings were constructed, they have almost completely eliminated views from passersby on foot or vehicle.

At Park Place the same could be true. Placing higher buildings toward the interior would allow shorter buildings on Central Way, along the Park and overlooking the public, open space in the project. It might even preserve Ken Davidson’s views!!

I noticed that the only folks with slide shows were those who spoke against the project. Doesn’t that show some sort of serious preparation? Maybe there just aren’t as many people opposed to the mixed use project as you’ve imagined.

Anyway, why would you have to choose sides, pro or con? Isn’t there room for those who might have a middle ground opinion? I also noticed that some “antis” mentioned that this would be the ruination of other downtown businesses. If so, how come so many business folks from downtown spoke “for?”

Ken Davidson, in his lawyerly way, insisted that local shopping centers do without “mixed use.” But, today I went to Redmond Town Center to shop for things I can’t get here in Kirkland and noticed on their map that IBM and ATT Wireless are major tenants.

And, speaking of Ken Davidson–I don’t see any public amenities connected to his building. There isn’t even a walkway to Park Place; you have to walk through a busy parking lot to get to the shopping center. Where’s your public art, Ken? Where are your bike racks, Ken?

I want to see Parkplace developed as a vibrant place for offices, businesses, and the community on a scale that works for Kirkland. I do not want to see an office park smack in the middle of town in which people come to work during the day and leave in the evening. We need to keep Parkplace as a place for the community to congregate, enjoy events, dining, movies, etc. It is important to the very fabric of our city.

Anyone who came at 7 couldn’t even get in the building to sign-up to speak. Some feel the city intenionally didn’t make plans for the crowd in order to weigh in favor of the developer. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I think there should be alternating pro and con speakers instead of lumping them together by how soon you sign in. It would also give the planners an idea of how many who came were for or against, even if they didn’t get to speak. Seems real logical to me to have a sign in sheet of pro and one of against and go back and forth until you run out of time. THen, even if they run out, they have a sense of which way the audience was leaning. And the sign-up sheet should be in a place where everyone can get to it, even if they can’t get in the building. It was an atrociously run event.

I want to see ParkPlace redeveloped and done so with mixed use, but I think this is way too big! And now they are talking 11 stories! The developer has made a lot of promises like a hardware store in the QFC…but has QFC agreed to this? Since it’s underground how would they carry things like pipe and lumber? And the promise of a hotel with meeting space, does Touchstone have a hotel who has expressed interest? I think these are empty promises to get out hopes up. They want to change the city, then walk away and leave us with the mess to deal with.