A. Introduction

The Public Services Element addresses fire and emergency medical services, emergency management, police protection, solid waste collection and transfer, schools and libraries.

As an urban area, Kirkland has an established infrastructure for the efficient provision of public services. Kirkland’s level of public services has generally been adequate as new growth and development have occurred. Deficiencies may still exist in some services but these can be addressed through appropriate planning, adequate funding and coordination with the appropriate service providers.

Individual service providers prepare master plans based on assumptions of growth from the Land Use and Housing Elements of the Comprehensive Plan.

Each provider faces unique challenges in meeting the expected demands. For fire, emergency management and police services, the primary challenge is in maintaining an appropriate level of service as growth occurs and the demand for services increases. For solid waste, the challenges are to reduce waste disposal at the regional transfer stations and landfill and to increase recycling diversion. The County must find demand management solutions to address tonnage and transaction capacity problems within its transfer station system. For the Lake Washington School District, a major challenge is in finding ways to be flexible and responsive to fluctuating demand for services. Libraries face the challenge of remaining relevant in the face of growth of the Internet and other technological changes that make information available much more widely, and to continually re-invent themselves to fill the gaps in access for underserved communities.

Existing Conditions

City services:

Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Services – The City provides emergency response to fire and medical emergencies, fire prevention, and public education and participates in regional specialized response for hazardous materials, technical rescue and paramedic services. The City has County, other cities and State mutual aid agreements for emergency response. Fire station locations and emergency fire response times are shown in Figure PS-1. Response times for emergency medical services are shown in Figure PS-2.

Some areas of the City do not meet the level of service standards for fire and emergency medical services. Specific capital projects to address these deficiencies are addressed in the City of Kirkland Fire and Building Department’s Strategic Plan and Fire Department Standards of Coverage and Deployment Plan. These include a new planned single or dual fire station to serve the northern areas of the City to be completed by 2017.

Emergency Management – The City provides readiness, response, and recovery services based on an all-hazards approach to disasters. Kirkland participates in regional and statewide response operations. It has mutual aid agreements with other cities, counties, and the State, as well as private-sector partners and voluntary agencies for management and response support in disasters.

Police Protection – The City provides traffic investigation, enforcement, and education; parking enforcement; patrol response to citizen calls for service; criminal enforcement; K9; special response teams; crisis negotiation team; investigations; crime analysis; explorers; crime prevention; school resource officers; record keeping; jail services; internal and external training; interlocal agreements for SWAT teams; explosives removal and other specialized services. The Police Department also maintains contracts for 911 communication services that serve as the public safety answering point for police, fire, and medical emergencies. The department also has mutual aid agreements with every law enforcement agency in the State. A new Justice Center centrally located in the Totem Lake area efficiently combines police, jail and municipal court services in one complex.

Solid Waste and Recycling Collection – The City contracts with Waste Management, Inc., to provide curbside solid waste and recycling collection to all single-family and multifamily residents and commercial customers. The Draft King County Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan sets specific goals for the City to achieve. The County and the City have committed to achieve a combined residential and commercial recycling diversion rate goal of 55 percent by 2015, and 70 percent by 2020 and a waste prevention goal of 20.4 pounds per household per week by 2020. In 2013, the City achieved a combined recycling diversion rate of 44.6 percent. The City started one of the first single-family residential food waste recycling programs followed by commercial and multifamily organics and business programs to encourage environmentally sound practices. The City will continue to work with its collection contractor to provide a comprehensive recycling program for Kirkland residents and businesses.

Non-City-Managed Public Services

Solid Waste Transfer – The King County Solid Waste Division (KCSWD) owns and operates the Houghton Transfer Station (HTS) in Kirkland where 98 percent of Kirkland’s solid waste is collected and transferred to the Cedar Hills landfill. The station currently processes more waste relative to most other King County transfer stations and accepts waste from surrounding communities such as Redmond and Bellevue. In 2013, the HTS processed 18 percent of the waste or the second most in the entire King County transfer system.

Kirkland, along with 37 other King County cities, participates in a Solid Waste Interlocal Agreement for King County to manage the collection and transfer of solid waste to the Cedar Hills landfill. King County’s Draft Solid Waste Transfer and Export System Plan Review Part 2 (Transfer Plan) recommends the permanent closure of the Houghton Transfer Station as late as 2023 pending the siting and construction of the new Bow Lake, Northeast County and South County stations. KCSWD is also studying the viability of demand management strategy alternatives to manage daily customer transactions and tonnage capacity with and without a new Northeast Recycling and Transfer Station.

The City of Kirkland continues to express its desire for KCSWD to honor the 2005 Memo of Understanding between the City and KCSWD to reduce waste tonnage processed at the HTS and abide by mitigation measures to reduce impacts to the neighborhood, and to close the HTS by 2021 as recommended in the Transfer Plan Part 1.

Schools – In Kirkland, the Lake Washington School District has elementary schools, junior and senior high schools, and a combination junior and senior high school under the international school program. The school district serves 76 square miles and includes all of Kirkland and Redmond, and portions of Sammamish and unincorporated King County. In addition, Kirkland has the Lake Washington Institute of Technology. School locations are shown in Figure PS-3.

The school district’s 2015 – 2020 Six Year Capital Facilities Plan LOS standards are as follows: 20 students for grades K – 1, 25 students for grades 2 – 3, 27 students for grades 4 – 5, 30 students for grades 6 – 8, and 32 students for grades 9 – 12. Based on these LOS standards, enrollment forecasts and planned facilities, the district has insufficient capacity to house students through 2020. In fact, the district forecasts enrollment to increase by over 12.5 percent during this period. Subject to bond approval, the district plans several facilities/expansions in Kirkland to meet this demand including a new elementary school and expansion of Lake Washington High School and the rebuilding and expansion of Juanita High School. Construction of a new elementary school in Kirkland will require the district to locate and acquire an adequate site for the school.

Lake Washington Institute of Technology is a public two-year Washington State technical community college, primarily serving the Eastside. LWTech is located in the North Rose Hill neighborhood.

Library – The King County Library System provides library services to Kirkland. The Kirkland library, located downtown, and the Kingsgate Library provide extensive reference and user services, and special collections. The mission of the King County Library System is to provide free, open, and equal access to ideas and information to all members of the community. Library locations are shown in Figure PS-3.

Relationship to Other Elements

The Public Services Element supports the Land Use Element by establishing policies to ensure that public services are adequate to support anticipated growth. In addition, this element establishes policies for the coordination of funding, concurrency, and level of service requirements set forth in the Capital Facilities Element. The Capital Facilities Element contains further explanation regarding the analysis of need for capital projects to meet the level of service standards for public services.

Relationship to Other Plans

In preparing this Element, the City has reviewed and considered the following documents that are adopted by reference:

♦    City of Kirkland Fire and Building Department’s Strategic Plan;

♦    Fire Department Standards of Coverage and Deployment Plan;

♦    Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan;

♦    Continuity of Operations and Continuity of Government Emergency Management Plan;

♦    King County Hazard Mitigation Plan;

♦    Police Department Crime Analysis, Crime Prevention, Resource Deployment and Community Outreach Plans;

♦    Draft King County Solid Waste Division Solid Waste Management Comprehensive Plan;

♦    Solid Waste Transfer and Waste Export System Plan;

♦    Solid Waste Transfer and Waste Export System Plan Review Part 1;

♦    Lake Washington School District’s Capital Facilities Plan;

♦    King County Library System Strategic Guidelines for Library Improvement Modifications.

Figure PS-1: Fire Response Times within 5.5 Minutes

Figure PS-2: Emergency Medical Services Response Times within 5 Minutes

Figure PS-3: Public School Facilities