In response to the For Kirkland Group statement.

For Kirkland group is for Kirkland the way they want it, not for Kirkland as it was or the way it should be. Many in the group were influential in creating the traffic mess with all its congestion and the high residential densities that now have created a city with the most people per acre in the immediate Puget Sound area. They have changed what people wanted when they moved here.

The group pushed the idea of Kirkland becoming a “core” city, which lead us down the path of some of the worse planning seen since the adoption of the Growth Management Act in 1990. Core cities require the development of business areas. The problem is that business areas require infrastructure and road capacity that will support them. The For Kirkland group does not know how to plan without ruining what has been the pride of 16 different neighborhoods.

At the South Kirkland Park-and-Ride – the proposed Transit Oriented Development site – where are the people who get off the busses going to go? Right through most of the neighborhoods north of the South Kirkland Park-and-Ride. They will add to already unacceptable traffic jams that the “concurrency” provision of the Growth Management Act was supposed to prevent.  The TOD along with the possible 143 high density dwelling units on Lake Washington boulevard will add to the problem. They are not a plausible solution.

For Kirkland is their idea. It will not make the city better for neighborhoods. They know what they want however; the mess they’ve created is proof that they don’t know how to plan without ruining the ambiance of what was and should be Kirkland.

Bob Style, Kirkland