Meeting Notes 01/13/2026

SRH/BT Neighborhood Association General Meeting Minutes – January 13, 2026

President Chris Kagen welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order.

Items from the Audience:

Deanna Matzen, Bridle Trails resident, reported on work that is taking place at the former landfill. The work is not related to the Northeast Recycling & Transfer Station (NERTS) but is long overdue ditch and gas capture maintenance. Right now, they are replacing vaults that are old and too small for the gas piping and landfill settling has exacerbated the problem. Dug up areas will be surrounded by fences. In late spring/summer, they will be regrading the site and fixing the standing water issues. Standing water on the landfill during the wet months is not a good thing. King County said that flyers about this work were mailed on Friday.

Police Report - Lt. David Quiggle from the Kirkland Police Department

(The slide presentation on SRH/BT neighborhood crime data is attached.)

Lt. Quiggle presented SRH/BT neighborhood crime data from the past two years which reflected a decrease in just about every category except theft and drugs. It was mentioned that the increase in theft was due to shoplifting at Rose Hill Safeway and the increase in drug offenses was due to drugs confiscated from the Safeway shoplifters.

Other categories of crime are down because there is more prosecution by King County and that Kirkland having its own jail and court helps. 90% of the crimes are committed by people who live outside of Kirkland. The Kirkland Fred Meyer has very good loss prevention folks and close proximity to the police station helps with prevention and apprehension.

The KPD currently has 105 officers and has approval to continue to hire officers to replace retiring officers.

Lt. Quiggle presented a case highlight on a person who had committed 21 commercial burglaries. Although most were committed outside of Kirkland, KPD pursued the prosecution. Kirkland does not use FLOCK cameras, but all neighboring departments share information and that information is shared with the federal government.

The Crime Mapping tool on the Kirkland website provides valuable information about crimes in our neighborhood.

Traffic enforcement reports that most DUIs are of Redmond people returning to Redmond. State Patrol vehicles can be seen on N.E. 85th Street because that is a State highway. Speed camera tickets issued near Rose Hill Elementary are issued only after the specific video is reviewed.

Kirkland had many bicycle officers working the “No Kings” rally and they may be called to work events related to the World Cup games this summer.

E-Cycles were discussed and a slide was presented that showed type of cycle, max speed, throttle, pedals and age restriction. If the person is not pedaling, it is an e-motorcycle and requires a license and being 16 years old. Kirkland has had many accidents involving kids on e-cycles, but luckily, no fatalities.

Planning Update – Adam Weinstein, COK Director of Planning and Building

(See attachment regarding Neighborhood Plans and Middle Housing)

Adam presented a review of the neighborhood planning process which has changed from past approaches. All Neighborhood Plans would be updated with a 10-year comprehensive plan update cycle. If a Neighborhood Plan needs to be updated in between the 10-year cycle, updates can happen as part of each annual Comprehensive Plan update.

Adam also presented a status report on Middle Housing, including types of housing allowed, new ADU standards, reduced parking requirements, and affordable housing requirements.

City Communications – David Wolbrecht, COK Communications Program Manager

David discussed the “This Week in Kirkland” newsletter which discusses many happenings around Kirkland including Council meetings, City events and alerts, and comes out every Thursday. If you don’t currently receive it, you can sign up. The City also has a weekly TWIK podcast featuring guests and covering topics of interest to Kirkland residents.

David gave a presentation about the “Our Kirkland” feature on the City of Kirkland website homepage, which is the City’s portal into service and information requests, a one-stop shop. Dropdown menus allow you to select categories such as noise, traffic, permitting, licensing, parks and “other”. Online Police Reporting and Public Records requests have their own portals. Very basic information is required to create a request. Submittals are sent to the appropriate work group who triage and respond. Staff attempts to acknowledge receipt of requests within two days. The time to resolve issues varies.

Other ways to get the information you need from the City include a chat bot on the City of Kirkland website which lets you ask any question. Another useful tool includes a Q&A platform where you can ask a question and get a video response.