C. About the Comprehensive Plan

Why are we planning?

In 1977, Kirkland adopted a new Comprehensive Plan establishing broad goals and policies for community growth and very specific plans for each neighborhood in the City. That plan, called the Land Use Policy Plan, served Kirkland well. Since its adoption, the plan has been actively used and updated to reflect changing circumstances. The 1977 Comprehensive Plan provided a foundation for a pattern and character of development that has made Kirkland a very desirable place to work, live, and play.

Passage of the Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1990 provided the City an opportunity to reexamine the entire plan in a thorough, systematic manner and to include focused goals and policies on Citywide elements, such as land use, transportation and housing. The GMA requires jurisdictions, including Kirkland, to adopt plans that provide for growth and development in a manner that is internally and regionally consistent, achievable, and affordable. The 1995, 2004 and 2015 GMC updates of the Comprehensive Plan and annual amendments reflect Kirkland’s intention to both meet the requirements of GMA as well as create a plan that reflects our best understanding of the many issues and opportunities currently facing the City.

What is a Comprehensive Plan?

The Comprehensive Plan establishes a vision, goals and policies, and implementation strategies for managing growth within the City over the next 20 years. The Vision Statement and Guiding Principles in the plan are a reflection of the values of the community – how Kirkland should evolve with changing times. The goals and policies identify more specifically the end result Kirkland is aiming for; policies address how to get there. The Implementation chapter identifies those actions that should be undertaken by the City to accomplish the goals and policies. All regulations pertaining to development (such as the Zoning Code, including shoreline management regulations, and the Subdivision Ordinance) must be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. The end result will be a community that has grown along the lines anticipated by the Comprehensive Plan.

How was the plan prepared?

The 1995 Comprehensive Plan, the first plan prepared under the Growth Management Act (GMA), was guided by a City Council appointed citizen advisory committee known as the Growth Management Commission (GMC). This group was established to recommend an updated Comprehensive Plan to the City Council consistent with the requirements of the GMA.

Two more GMA updates were completed in 2004 and 2015. The 2004 update included a community visioning outreach called “Community Conversations – Kirkland 2022” that won the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Vision 2020 Award in 2003 for its grass roots approach of having residents and businesses hosting their own conversations about Kirkland’s future. The 2015 GMA update included a community visioning program called “Kirkland 2035 – Your Vision, Your Voice, Your Future” that used a variety of Internet approaches to connect with people along with several community planning days and hosted conversations at various neighborhood and business events and City boards and commissions. With each GMA update, additional Citywide topics have been addressed, including human services and sustainable community.

The City has made annual updates to the Comprehensive Plan between the mandated GMA updates. These updates included changes to the Transportation and Capital Facilities Elements, incorporating new GMA legislation, making minor corrections and considering private amendment requests.

Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) have been prepared for each of the GMA updates that included analyses of growth alternatives and impacts on a variety of topics. The 2015 GMA update also included a Planned Action EIS for Totem Lake.

Throughout the planning process to prepare and amend the Plan and to prepare the EIS, the City actively encouraged and facilitated public participation using a variety of forums and involving several City boards and commissions, including the Kirkland Planning Commission, the Houghton Community Council, the Transportation Commission, the Park Board, the Senior Council, and the Human Services Board.