Politics & Government

Council Extends Moratorium Delaying Controversial Potala Village Project

New councilman Toby Nixon takes his seat, while Doreen Marchione is elected deputy mayor. Also, citizens urge action against groups of party boats on Juanita Bay.

The Kirkland City Council extended a moratorium delaying a controversial apartment development along upscale Lake Street South Tuesday night, and also elected a new deputy mayor and seated a new councilman.

The council also heard testimony from two members of the Kirkland-based birding group Eastside Audubon, who supported proposed regulations to prohibit large party-style gatherings of recreational boats common in Juanita Bay during the summer.

Despite the reservations of Mayor Joan McBride, the council voted unanimously to enact a six-month moratorium on development in areas zoned “BN,” or neighborhood business.

In November, the council unexpectedly adopted an emergency 60-day moratorium to delay the apartment development on Lake Street South, just across the street from Lake Washington.

Although since scaled back, the original proposal by Dargey Enterprises of Everett would have created a 143-unit apartment complex across two lots on busy, scenic and largely upscale Lake Street. At a , Lobsang Dargey, said the proposal had been reduced to 115 units that would be condomiumums for sale, not apartments.

But the development continues to face fierce opposition from a group of some 100 neighbors, who say allowing density that high would be inappropriate for the neighborhood, would lower property values and cause severe traffic and environmental impacts.

The development would be built in one of only two areas in the city zoned BN, which allows residential densities much greater than surrounding zones.

Four residents spoke in favor of the moratorium, saying the city needs to step back and examine the BN designation to make sure it is not in conflict with the city’s comprehensive plan.

“We need to make sure the process is clear to all involved,” said Margaret Bull. “We need the clearest guidelines in the first place to prevent problems in the second place.”

Calling Lake Street and its extension, Lake Washington Boulevard, the city’s “signature arterial," Dr. Chuck Pilcher added: “Extending this moratorium is an opportunity to look forward at what’s best for the city, not look backward at what went wrong.”

Saying she was concerned the city was being unfair to the developer, McBride, the only council member to vote against the original moratorium, said she would vote for this one reluctantly.

“I don’t like moratoriums,” she said. “I don’t think they’re good for the city. This is not something I can do easily.”

The council vote sends the issue of BN zoning to the Planning Commission for review, with a final proposal to be delivered to the council by May 1 after two public hearings.

Earlier in the meeting during the regular public testimony period, two members of Eastside Audubon, a chapter of the national group the Audubon Society, urged the city to take action against the activities of boaters in Juanita Bay. Large groups of recreational boaters typically gather during the warmer days of summer in the shallow, wildlife-rich bay, tying up to each other to party, swim and listen to music.

Audubon member Tim McGruder, noting that has been selected as a spot in the group’s new Puget Birding Trail map (due out later this month), said the boaters are having an impact on wildlife there.

Former city council member and longtime parks advocate Nona Ganz added that the concentration of boats is unsafe, noisy, polluting and disturbs not only wildlife, but also residents who live on the bay. She said regulations to prohibit such concentrations would make the bay “safer, quieter and better for people and wildlife.”

City Manager Kurt Triplett told the council later that city staff would soon propose two ordinances, one limiting noise on the lake and the other prohibiting boats from tying up to each other, or “rafting.”

In other action, three council members took the oath of office. Incumbents Bob Sternoff and Dave Asher were reelected in the November election. The new council member, Toby Nixon of the annexation neighborhood of Kingsgate, .

Finally, McBride was unanimously reelected to her second term as mayor, while Doreen Marchione was unanimously elected deputy mayor, replacing Penny Sweet - who nominated Marchione for the position.

After the meeting, Sweet noted that she had been elected deputy mayor during her first term on the council, an unusual event. Sweet said when Marchione -- a longtime local politician and former mayor of Redmond -- expressed an interest in the position this time, she felt obliged to step aside.


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