Dear Mr. Butcher: Here is the testimony I presented last night to the Kirkland City Council regarding the Development regarding the South Kirkland P&R. Hopefully you can share it with your readership. Sincerely, Shawn Etchevers   A stealthy Kirkland Planning Commission’s project to construct ...

The Downtown Kirkland Commercial Property Owners are extremely concerned about the potential changes the City is considering making to the downtown zoning code. For example, the change to increase the width of the sidewalks from 10' to 13' (12' minimum) will, in effect, substantially reduce the building envelope for ...

Dear Editor: The council is about to adopt a budget that includes higher fees and taxes to make up for their inability to balance the budget. [Editor's note: State law requires the City Council to balance its budget]  Not a ...

Dear Editor: Earlier this month I went to San Diego, courtesy of the Cascadia Center, where I visited the Public Transportation EXPO. There, I saw many state-of-the-art diesel and hybrid (single ...

Dear Editor: What happened at the Planning Commission’s October 9th meeting was clearly the result of staff’s overzealous approach to adopting more regulations than what is necessary to comply with the new Shoreline Master Program “guidelines.”  ...

ow would you feel if you threw a party and nobody came? The city sent every household the “Special Budget Edition of the Kirkland City Update” to inform citizens of the serious $13M to $17M budget shortfall (about 12%) and to get feed back from citizens and commercial...

WHERE IS YOUR LEADERSHIP? In this time of economic stress, fiscal failings and general uneasiness about our community you should be doing everything you can to work with business and residents to make business successful in our communityYou should be working with developers...

I have been watching with great interest the whirlwind surrounding your recent decisions relative to annexation and downtown development. As a 20 year resident of Juanita (the last area to be annexed by the city), I am appalled at the...

Shortly after Kirkland annexed the North Rose Hill neighborhood from King County in 1988, it stopped maintaining a system of ditches that had been in place and maintained by King County for near a century or more. An infrastructure that had been considered...

I’ve lived here since 1968 and have watched Kirkland add fantastic waterfront parks, underground the massive overhead wires on Market Street, and oversee the vital developments at Carillon Point, Park Place, Juanita Village, the Performing Arts Center and Peter Kirk Park. I don’t think that any of these actions...

I just wanted to pass along my dismay to you and the Kirkland Views readers about an email I received earlier this week from the Seattle Seahawks regarding Metro and mass transit options to Qwest Field on home game days. The Seahawks received one bid...

Dear Editor: Costco wants to build a gas station way back in the neighborhood next to I-405. That's great for visibility. That's terrible for our recently enacted NE 85th Street Rezone, which calls for developement along NE 85th and not back in the neighborhood where...

Dear Editor: I have enjoyed reading this blog and some others to try and get a sense of the mood and attitude here. It is great to be home while at the same time strange to find that the place I grew up in and developed my life compass has changed...

Mr. Asher made statements that reassured me of his understanding of why we have governments and their purpose. Not degrading response times of fire and police must be a priority. Also, he inferred that the city’s way of doing business resulted in a budget gap greater than the ...

Dear Editor, Total Recall? Probably not. Partial Recall? Most likely. Nine days after the infamous meltdown in the Kirkland council chambers, interested citizens met the evening of July 10th to discuss their options and what was required of them regarding the futures of Mayor James Lauinger and Councilman Thomas Hodgson.