A proposed change to lower parking requirements for multi-family residences is drawing concerns from the Kirkland Alliance of Neighborhoods (KAN).

As a result, the Kirkland Planning Commission voted to extend the public comment on the matter during its Aug. 28 meeting with the Houghton Community Council.

The proposed amendments would allow for 1.2 stalls for a studio, 1.3 stalls for a one bedroom unit, 1.6 stalls for a two bedroom unit, 1.8 stalls for a three bedroom unit, and require 10 percent of parking spaces to be set aside for visitor parking.

However, the amendment would allow for a 15 percent reduction to the parking requirements if the property is located within half a mile of the Downtown Kirkland Transit Center.

According to the commission, the current multi-family parking requirements do not take into account the bedroom count of units. Kirkland’s general multi-family zones require 1.7 stalls per unit and up to 0.5 stalls per unit for visitor parking. In the central business district, the current multi-family parking requirement is one stall per bedroom with a minimum average of 1.3 stalls per unit, plus 0.1 stalls per bedroom for visitor parking.

The proposal is currently under consideration by the Kirkland Planning Commission, which first took up the matter at a study session in November 2013.

The response from Kirkland residents indicated fears of parking shortages in future residential developments that could spill over into the surrounding neighborhood.

During the initial public comment period, the commission received emails expressing dismay at the reduction in parking requirements. According to the Aug. 21 commission memorandum, the general attitude of resident comments was that a surplus of parking would be a benefit and that a lack of on-street parking needed to be taken into consideration.

Recently, the commission received letters from residents, as well as KAN, stating the changes would have a detrimental effect on parking. KAN voted unanimously to request public comment be extended to allow more input from neighborhood residents, according to an email sent by Doug Rough, co-chair of JNA, to Jon Regala, senior planner at the city of Kirkland.

Ramola Lewis and Lynn Booth, both Norkirk Neighborhood residents, wrote in an Aug. 17 email to Regala that a 15 percent reduction within half a mile mile of the downtown area would “further aggravate the lack of parking currently available in the downtown core. The assumption that one and two bedroom residences will only have one stall and one and a half stalls respectively, is a flawed assumption. Most homeowners/renters have two cars especially if both are wage earners and need to commute to work.”

Another Kirkland resident, Kelley Price, criticized the parking per unit ratio, writing “Whenever I’ve lived in or near multi-family housing, I’ve found that parking is a pain, there are never enough spots for the cars.”

“We live in Kirkland because we don’t want to deal with the parking and other hassles of car-unfriendly Seattle,” Price wrote.

Regala stated changes to the parking stall per unit ratio is based on the King County’s Right Size Parking (RSP) project. Funded by the Federal Highway Administration, the study examined multi-family parking utilization.

“When we did our study and looked at the data … the majority of sites had a surplus of parking,” Regala said.

According to the planning commission, the project found that “parking requirements for multi-family developments generally resulted in an oversupply of parking,” with an average of 1.4 spaces built per unit, while only one stall was used per unit.

In an email to Regala, Kirkland resident Karen Levonson criticized the study’s findings, claiming residents were not informed and thus it did take into account variables, such as the time of day.

“If several residents were out of town with their cars at Sea-Tac, the parking supply would appear over-supplied if the spot they use is vacant,” Levonson wrote. “That doesn’t mean they won’t need the spot later when they arrive home.”