Downtown DevelopmentZ

I have to hand it to the City of Kirkland Council Members. They meet every two weeks, and lately their meetings have been long, often going past midnight. Regardless what decision they make, people will not be content.
If too restrictive in their decisions, developers will be pissed, if too "lame", many of our wonderful city's citizens will be upset.

Sitting on the City Council these days is no "walk in the park", but literally a "call" where you need a fair amount of "passion" for our thew city of Kirkland and its future.

Last night was one of those nights. Council chambers were almost full, and one could easily see who was a developer (or anyone with a direct financial interest), and who was a resident with a keen interest in this town's future "evolution".

I am firm in my belief that one of the unique things with Kirkland is its location along the shores of Lake Washington. The lake and access to it needs to be protected at all cost. Buildings should be limited to 2 stories along Lake Street and we do not want to become another "Bellevue" or a Redmond TownCenter. Kirkland is a true "local" destination thanks to our quirky and cosy downtown, a downtown that is not really planned, but a mixture of buildings in various shapes and ages.
Butr, last night, "we" lost. The McLeod project will be allowed to proceed and build a taller structure along Lake Street. I'm sure it'll be a fine buiolding, but it'll also be "new" and "clean", without the character that only older buildings can provide.

Park Place on the other hand, should be allowed to be redeveloped. It sits farther away from the lake, and there are few residential areas that will be affected by taller buildings. On the other hand, traffic can be a mess, worse than it is today unless something is mandated on the planned development by Touchstone Corporation.

Hence, force the developer to build a garage that is big enough to cope with the demand of the office space daytime, and the "destination" traffic night time, likely a garage with 4,000-5,000 stalls. Access to that garage can not be on our surface streets, but need to have sort of direct access ramp under 6th Avenue straight into the garage. If that does not happen, downtown Kirkland will be clogged with traffic, far surpassing current volumes, volumes that already "lock up" our city in the morning and afternoon.