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The City of Kirkland has just released the Downtown Kirkland Retail Strategy: Interim Report produced by outside consultants, E.D. Hovee & Company, LLC. The report is a part of a strategic retail study for downtown Kirkland being conducted with the Downtown Advisory Committee…

Will the citizens work together to find common ground or will we split further apart? There is a great deal of passion surrounding the events of the past four months with regard to the Bank of America project. This appeal process began in April, and it was evident last night that all parties were tired of…

By a vote of 4 to 3, the Kirkland City Council decided to end the Bank of America appeal and send the project back to the Design Review Board… unless SRM Development decides they have a better chance in Superior Court. SRM presented their final modified proposal to the Council followed…

SRM Development has requested that Councilmember Hodgson “be prohibited from participating further in this appeal in any manner.” SRM documented their objection as follows: 1. Disqualification and Recusal of Councilmember Hodgson…

More light has been shed on the events surrounding the Bank of America Appeal. It appears that both SRM and CiViK agreed to a series of Question and Answer rounds following the July 11 quasi-judicial hearing. Kirkland Views has obtained additional…

A series of questions were posed to SRM Development during the July 11 hearing before the Kirkland City Council in the CiViK appeal of the Bank of America project. Kirkland Views has obtained a copy of SRM Development’s response to these questions….

To say that the events surrounding the City Council quasi-judicial hearing of July 1, 2008 have been bizarre would be an understatement. Kirkland has been witness to high drama in the Council chambers the likes of which we hope to never see again. This is a disturbing course…

“Mr. Hodgson’s waiver of the City’s attoney-clinet privilege was unliateral, unauthorized and not an effective waiver. It was clear at the time Mr. Hodgson provided you with the Memo that his attempted waiver was opposed by a majority of the Kirkland City Council..”

The following email was received in response to our request for copies of the documents passed from Councilmember Hodgson to CiViK attorney Richard Aramburu at the July 1 Kirkland City Council Meeting:…

Councilmember Dave Asher moved to have the police secure the documents from the appellant, but in all of the confusion, the motion was not seconded as the Mayor looked to the City Attorney for legal guidance.

The City Council appoints three new members to the DRB. A fourth position remains open. Landscape architects are encouraged to apply.

Downtown Bellevue has a new Safeway in a mixed-use project and there are lessons for Kirkland Parkplace to learn from this first of its kind store on the Eastside. The “flagship lifestyle store” includes underground parking that stands out as superior to some…

The arguments both for and against the three Parkplace development options before the Commission were well reasoned and often filled with passion. Excellent points were made by both the Kirkland CRD and Touchstone sides during the public hearing and the hope is this input will help improve the project.

For the Planning Commision, this is about as big as it gets. We expect the place to be filled to the rafters. Come give your two cents worth. Whatever your stripe, your opinion counts. Express yourself. The future of Kirkland Parkplace is at stake.

A Kirkland Views reader sent in these drawings representing the three options for Kirkland Parkplace which are before the Planning Commission and upon which our most recent poll was based. Don’t forget to mark your calendar for Thursday, June 26 at 7:00 PM to be at City Hall for what is likely your last chance to voice your opinion on this issue.

Kirkland Parkplace as we know it will soon be history. The owner of the property has applied for a variance on the current zoning to allow for a planned mixed-use office/retail/hotel complex. In short, there are three possible scenarios for the future of Parkplace: 2 of them are mixed-use and the third is an office park.

The City Council has not yet resolved the appeal of the Stewart McLeod mixed-use development. At issue was the definition of “two stories along Lake Street”, heights and views from a public path between the project and The Portsmith condominiums.

The hearing started with comments on the Orni and Altom PARs. Parkplace was by far the dominant issue. Those who signed up to speak but were not able to do so by the end of the evening will be first on the list for June 26th.

Moving Day
Nettleton Mansion/Green’s Funeral Home — Originally 400 State St. (Today it looks more like it is located at 500 State St, but it is on wheels so no telling how long until it moseys on down the road.)
Originally built in 1914 for Clark Nettleton, then-publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The City of Kirkland received twelve applications to fill the four vacant positions on the Design Review Board (DRB). The deadline for applications was June 6. At the conclusion of the interview process, those selected will join Carter Bagg, Brian Berg and Michael Stanger as members of the DRB. The City Council will choose those most [...]