7. OPEN SPACE/PARKS

The Everest neighborhood contains several parks and open space offering opportunities for recreation, places to gather, and natural areas including Everest Park and its natural areas, Ohde Avenue Pea Patch Garden, the Rotary Central Station Pavilion and Feriton Spur Park located along the CKC. Planned enhancements and recreational activities within the parks are contained in the citywide Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Element and (PROS) Plan.

Policy EV-19:

Enhance Everest Park facilities and open space.

Everest Park is a 23-acre community park featuring community youth playfields, playground, picnicking areas, natural areas and trails. The playfields are used predominately by Kirkland American Little League. Special emphasis should be placed on preserving, protecting, and enhancing the park’s extensive forested areas and accompanying pocket wetlands. The natural area in Everest Park is over 13 acres and includes wetland, forest and stream habitat. Kirkland’s Green Partnership program continues to provide upland and riparian plant restoration activities as part of the ongoing stewardship program under the City of Kirkland 20 Year Forest and Natural Area Restoration Plan. The park features a section of Everest Creek. Stream restoration activities should continue in the park, and opportunities to provide storm water educational/interpretive information signage should be pursued. See PROS Plan for further details. Access to Everest Park could be enhanced further by providing pedestrian/bicycle pathways as illustrated in Figures EV-5 and EV-6.

Policy EV-20:

Foster the public open space view corridors to Lake Washington, Seattle, and the Olympic Mountains from public rights-of-way and parks.

One important open space of great community value is often overlooked. The street system provides Kirkland’s neighborhoods with a number of excellent local and territorial views. Such “view corridors” lie within the public domain and are valuable for the beauty, sense of orientation, and identity they impart (see Community Character and Open Space/Parks Chapter). Such view corridors are to be identified, preserved, and enhanced. One means to this end may be the undergrounding of utilities (see Public Services/Facilities Chapter).

Examples of where these visual amenities are located are described below:

•    A view of the Olympics and Lake Washington is at NE 68th Street at the intersection of 6th Street South. The NE 68th Street/6th Street view can be significantly improved by removing pole signs, lowering signs, or placing signs on the face of buildings in the area, and either undergrounding or relocating overhead utility lines.

•    The other major view in the Everest Neighborhood is located at the intersection of NE 85th Street and Kirkland Way. This location presents a sweeping territorial view of Lake Washington, Seattle, the Olympic Mountains, and Downtown Kirkland (see Figure EV-5).

•    The NE 70th Street overpass of I-405 serves as a pedestrian pathway connecting the Everest and Bridle Trails Neighborhoods. It constitutes a gateway to these neighborhoods from the Interstate. In addition to the pedestrian connection it provides to the east side of I-405, the overpass provides a territorial view of Evergreen Point, the floating bridge, Madison Park, the Seattle Central Business District, and even the Space Needle.

Policy EV-21:

Access to Everest Park should be provided, particularly from the east and southeast.

Residents in the eastern portion of the Everest area rely on Everest Park for a variety of recreational needs. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that pedestrian access to the park will be available, particularly from the east and southeast. New developments in these areas should incorporate such access into their design.