The division of the annexation area neighborhoods is one of great debate and consequences. The City of Kirkland Planning and Community Development Department and Neighborhood Services have given annexation residents a chance to voice their opinions on seven options through a survey recently posted on the city’s Web site. The survey will remain online for participation until Sept. 30.

“We started this process small during the spring, meeting with groups in the annexation area and it built from there,” said Jeremy McMahan, Planning department supervisor. “We are trying to get more people looped into the process.”

Attendance at local meetings has been sparse, with less than 20 residents at each meeting thus far. The city needs more input primarily from the annexation area’s North Juanita neighborhood.

“We have not had a lot of attendance at the meetings from North Juanita residents,” said McMahan. “We need to hear from those residents.”

The online survey gives residents a chance to download PDFs of the five options listed A-E, along with two additional options, F and F.2 that concern the Totem Lake neighborhood/business district. Residents are asked to answer nine multiple choice questions with the option to type in answers not presented. There are two long answer questions where residents can get more specific with their opinions.

These comments and the results of the survey will be shared with the Planning Commission and the Kirkland City Council, which will have the ultimate say on how the neighborhoods are divided.

Some of the options attempt to even out the populations of each neighborhood in Kirkland after the June 1, 2011 annexation date, but McMahan points out that it is not the primary reason for the new divisions. The biggest reason for the changes is to provide identity and gauge community involvement in the city government and local organizations within those neighborhoods. The boundaries are also important for residents as it concerns grants and funding that is dispersed through the use of neighborhoods.

“There isn’t really a lot of money in those grants right now with how the city budget is,” said McMahan. “It is more to know how people get involved in those areas.”

The three current neighborhoods in the annexation area dwarf the size and population of current Kirkland neighborhoods. And while some of the reasoning behind breaking up the current annexation neighborhoods is to have all neighborhoods close to the same size, the division has more to do with considering geographic boundaries and resident’s identity.

Getting to those new configurations is proving to be a challenge as there are many options.

The maps posted online show vast differences in the size of certain neighborhoods and geographic boundaries. Options A and E show the Finn Hill neighborhood unchanged from the current boundaries with a population of more than 15,000. That size is more than double most of the current Kirkland neighborhoods. Options B, C, D, F and F.2 divide Finn Hill in half.

All of the options show North Juanita in Kirkland merging with North Juanita of the annexation area, but in different ways. For the Kingsgate neighborhood, options B,C, F and F.2 divide the current neighborhood, while A, D and E do not.

The most controversial of the options are F and F.2, which were designed by annexation community members at a meeting in June. Those options take into consideration Totem Lake as a business center and how that impacts the residential boundary design. The option is controversial because while Totem Lake is primarily a business district right now, the city expects that neighborhood to change dramatically in the future, with possibly a higher density for both business and residential use.

“It is one of the key questions for the city,” said McMahan. “That area is not as strong as some of the neighborhoods. It is an urban center and some think it needs its own identity.”

Options F shows Kirkland with no Totem Lake neighborhood, with South Rose Hill, South Juanita, Kingsgate and North Juanita all absorbing a portion. The F options have one other big difference from the others. Options A-E show no change in the Kingsgate neighborhood. But the F options show a new neighborhood called Firloch, east of 124th Ave. N.E.

The survey is designed primarily for those who live in the annexation area.

“We just want to know, do you have skin in this or not,” said McMahan.

Along with the survey, the city is preparing for more community meetings to discuss these options and additional ideas. The city will conduct one meeting for each of the current neighborhoods in the annexation area.

The neighborhood boundary concepts will be presented to the Planning Commission on Oct. 14, along with the result of the survey.

Meetings

• The meeting for the Kingsgate neighborhood will take place at 7 p.m., Sept. 15 at Kamiakin Junior High, 14111 132nd Ave. N.E.

• The meeting for the Finn Hill neighborhood will take place at 7 p.m., Sept. 22 at St. John Vianney Church, 12600 84th Ave. N.E.

• The meeting for the North Juanita neighborhood will be at 7 p.m., Sept. 23 at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, 10021 N.E. 124th St.