We have been involved in Kirkland and Everest Neighborhood issues for many years.

So we were among the 300-plus citizens at City Hall March 23 for the Public Hearing on the possible rezone of the Houghton-Everest Center on NE 68th. We along with dozens of Everest and Houghton residents spoke out against the attempt by the City and developers to site an enormous apartment house complex – up to 850 units – on land that, according to the Comprehensive Plan, is zoned for retail businesses serving the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

The huge audience and dozens of speakers were strongly, and overwhelmingly, opposed to these changes. They clearly wanted to see the area develop according to the needs of the surrounding area and not become some sort of “South Lake Union East”.

Every city needs to know what it is, where it is going, and what it wants to be. Kirkland is no exception. It has always been a special place – an involved citizenry, a government that you may not always agree with, but one with a reputation for at least listening to and responding to citizen concerns. It also has a deserved reputation for a neighborly “small-town feel” that we noticed when we decided to buy a home here years ago. Interestingly even with wholesale changes over the past decades, many speakers at the Public Hearing, some here less than one year, mentioned the exact same thing when describing how they came to call Kirkland home.

This culture and the unique appeal of Kirkland must be preserved – changes must help Kirkland evolve into an even better city and must not be allowed to destroy the human scale of our neighborhoods, all in the name of bigger buildings and bigger profits for developers.

Make your voice heard – send letters to: awalen@kirklandwa.gov; citycouncil@kirklandwa.gov; HoughtonCouncil@kirklandwa.gov; PlanningCommissioners@kirklandwa.gov; aruggeri@kirklandwa.gov; JPfundt@kirklandwa.gov; KTriplett@kirklandwa.gov; EShields@kirklandwa.gov; and KBrown@kirklandwa.gov.

David and Anna Aubry, Kirkland