HNA Newsletter: Vote, Density, 108th, Houghton Village, La Quinta

Round up of issues and developments impacting Houghton residents

Author

Houghton Neighborhood Association
October 21, 2024

Table of Contents

Houghton, it’s time to vote!

While Kirkland has had high voter turnout in Presidential elections, City Council election turnout has been low (see map below), indicating low interest / awareness of the issues at stake with different candidates. So here’s a short background on the two House Representatives that are up for re-election this November. State legislators definitely impact city level policy. Read below and view their websites to decide how to vote!

Did you know that both 48th district incumbents (Vandana Slatter and Amy Walen) have had significant impact on what you see happening in Houghton? They co-sponsored House Bill 1769 that led to the removal of the Houghton Community Council which was a condition of annexation? Further, both of our elected representatives voted for House Bill 1110 which is driving the density agenda and controversial proposals by City of Kirkland planners. They both also voted for House Bill 1220 which further demands jurisdictions address moderate, low, very low, and extremely low-income housing in their comprehensive plans. This bill further requires jurisdictions to address racially disparate impacts and displacement, and requires the Department of Commerce to provide the inventory and analysis of existing and projected housing needs.

Only representative Vandana Slatter has opposition this November for the 48th district house seat in Lynn Trinh, a newcomer to political office. Get informed and vote thoughtfully.

The map above shows Kirkland voting precincts and voter turnout (red) in the 2020 Presidential election (number left of “/”), and the 2023 City Council elections (number right of “/”). It shows we are not turning out in enough numbers for city council elections.

Oct. 8th Neighborhood Meeting Recap:

WOW!  What a turnout for October's Houghton Neighborhood Association meeting...THANK YOU!!  We are an engaged neighborhood, which will make us stronger and enables our voices to be heard.  On that note, thanks to everyone who's been writing to our city council, planning commission and other governmental bodies.  This makes an impact, please keep it up and encourage your neighbors to do the same.

King County Metro and City of Kirkland transportation planners take questions about 108th development and the K Line project

Planning Commission Speakers on Density

We welcomed alternate perspectives on density by inviting planning commissioners Bria Heiser and Rodney Rutherford to hear from residents, describe their positions and what is still to be done for the controversial housing element recommendations to the comprehensive plan update. Planning commissioners are volunteers that provide perspective and influential recommendations to the elected City Council members who ultimately vote on policy decisions.

The planning commission recently voted down the option to recommend the controversial Transit Oriented Corridors (LU 2.4) that promised 50-200 housing units per acre .25 miles flanking major bus routes all across the city including 108th/Houghton Blvd. and 68th/70th.

City Planning Dept. focus for Kirkland neighborhoods and recent vote of planning commissioners

Land Use Element (LU) 2.A was added as a new suggestion by the commission. Proposed policy would direct the same density to neighborhoods surrounding and up to .5 miles away from a grocery store

A commissioner challenged the basis for the claim on the signs we see throughout the neighborhood at the meeting. An explanation can be found at the organization website on the image above under FAQ.

What’s Happening on 108th? City of Kirkland Business Access and Transit - (BAT, formerly known as queue jumps) and Metro K Line:

The city of Kirkland is currently in the design stage for 2 BAT lanes on 108th.  One from 53rd to 60th and the other from 62nd to 68th.  There is also a planned traffic signal at 60th.  City transportation officials shared a map showing the properties that are projected to be impacted by the need for increased 108th right of way (see attached).   We've seen little proof that this is going to significantly impact our traffic issues.  In fact, the city has said that it will save around 2 minutes of travel time.  All this for 2 minutes of 108th travel savings and neighborhood impacts?  

 The 108th corridor is already well served with transit and as Metro has indicated, ridership has decreased significantly since 2019.  It’s for this reason that they cut services within Kirkland and closed the Houghton Park & Ride.  Metro has yet to provide any credible K Line ridership numbers or justification.  

 All this, while traffic continues to worsen on 68th.  The backups often extend from beyond State Street, all the way up to 405.  Add this to proposed increases in  neighborhood density through the comprehensive plan, Houghton Village development, the expansion of the Emerson Campus by the school district and development of the Houghton Park & Ride and one can only imagine!

Our biggest opportunity right now is to continue to lobby city officials on the impacts of the BAT lanes as well as routing for the K Line.  We also need to make it clear that any such lanes on SB 108th are unacceptable.  

 Our next update from Kirkland and Metro will be at the January neighborhood association meeting (date TBD).  Who to contact (please c[email protected]):

City of Kirkland: 

 City Council - [email protected]

Transportation Commission - [email protected]

City Transportation Manager - [email protected] (Doug McIntyre)

Project Engineer - [email protected] (Minna Yan)

Community Engagement Coordinator - [email protected] (Christian Knight)

King County Metro:

RapidRide K Line Lead - [email protected] (Ryan Whitney)

RapidRide General Mailbox - [email protected] 

What do you say? 

A resident recently sent this out, which you can use as a guide.  Always best to relate any personal stories or impacts as well.

Hi, this is XXX and XXX we live in XXX 108th Ave NE. This is one of the homes directly affected by this project, but we have not received ANY communication on this until we went to the meeting a few nights ago at NWU. We were shocked to learn that the plan is for purchasing sections of our property for use to create a dedicated bus lane. We went and spoke to the owners of the other homes that are affected and none of them were aware of this. I would like to discuss the following.

  • If you must have a dedicated bus lane, why not re-purpose the current middle lane and accomplish the same goal without having to intrude on all our properties, have PSE move light poles, etc. And the bike lane already exists and does not need to be changed. Not to mention you don’t need to cut down the beautiful old-growth trees that line the side of the road today.

· When any of us come to our homes from the north, we will now have to cross two lanes of traffic (southbound and bus lane) to get into our driveway. Given traffic levels in the afternoon, this is going to cause more traffic to pile up behind us while we wait to turn.

  • As it is, very few people ride the bus, and we have seen maybe 1-2 people get on at the bus stop outside our home. Most times the bus goes by nearly empty. What is the rationale and drive behind spending all this money to serve such a small group for such small benefit? And further, the study for this project was done in 2017 and not post-Covid where many things have changed.

  • I (and many others here in Kirkland) cannot help but think $120+ million of our King County tax $ and $10 million of our Kirkland tax $  would be far better spent connecting to the light rail system in Bellevue in south Kirkland and having it stop at Google, downtown, etc. That would remove FAR more cars from the road than the bus which hardly anybody uses.

  • Many of our houses are quite close to the street already and your plan would mean the bus and bike lanes would literally be next to our house. This will also significantly impact our ability to build a DADU in the future or expand our home footprint if needed.

Going forward, we would also like to understand how you have gone so far down this path with NO discussion with all of us whose properties are going to be affected? And how can all of us taxpayers, who pay your salaries, get a voice in how our money is spent BEFORE you decide to spend it? I assume we still live in a society where our voices and concerns can be heard and addressed versus making unilateral decisions and informing us after the fact?

Regards, XXX & XXX

Other resources:  

Houghton Village Development Proposals

After purchasing the commercial property with tax dollars, the City is weighing 3 different recommendations from their consultants on developing the property. All of them assume two - 5 story buildings.  The most favored by the City is "Option B" (see website). This would allow for retail on the bottom floor, open park-like areas connecting with the CKC and 155 total residential units. According to the consultants, the only way for this to pan out financially is with significantly reduced parking and 5 stories. Where will the cars go? Most likely, into our neighborhood. What about traffic and safety on 68th? Part of this plan would also be to extend 106th into Houghton Village with a potential new road (via an easement) that will wind around to 9th Ave (where current light is). There will be a Council study session, held in Council chambers on Wednesday November 19th at 5:30pm to hear an update on the project. All are welcome to attend. It will also be streamed.  Tentatively scheduled is another study session on 1/21/25 at 5:30p as well as adoption of a "Houghton Village Development Plan" within that evening's Council meeting.  

Make yourself heard.... [email protected]

King County/Kirkland La Quinta Low Barrier Permanent Supportive Housing Facility

Former La Quinta hotel on Northup Way

The City Council gave King County permission to purchase and run a low barrier permanent housing facility in Kirkland in January of 2022. By March, King County purchased the La Quinta hotel on Northup Way for this purpose. August 15th, 2024 King County announced that Plymouth Housing would be the operator of the facility with 103 units. A meeting was initiated with immediately impacted businesses in the Linbrook office complex in November of 2023. At the last Council meeting, Houghton was invited to be a part of the future conversations on how to protect the community. HNA is forming a special interest group of residents to participate as advocates in forming good neighbor agreements to ensure the immediate residential community is not negatively impacted and that the overall project is a success. Please reach out to [email protected] to inquire about participating on this committee.

Plymouth Housing and the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority liaisons presented at the Council meeting on October 15th. Watch  

City of Houghton Historical Marker Dedication Tuesday, October 8th

Marker is located on the Cross Kirkland Corridor above Terrace Park where the City of Houghton city hall, fire and police departments were once located.

We extend our gratitude to former Houghton Community Councilmembers, Rick Whitney, John Kappler, Betsy Pringle, Larry Toedtli, HNA community leader, Lisa McConnell, City Manager, Kurt Triplett and Community Liaison Daniel Lazo. Current city councilmembers, Tymczyszyn, Curtis, Sweet and Black attended the dedication with other former HCC members and neighbors. The former City of Houghton included the Lakeview, Houghton and part of the Bridals Trails neighborhoods.

Save the Date! Next HNA meeting is November 20th at Northwest University (NWU)

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