Contentious Downtown Kirkland Development Clears City Hurdle

A major retail, office and parking development in the heart of Kirkland, proposed by developer Stuart McLeod, has cleared a major hurdle, with a city hearing examiner rejecting arguments by neighbors who stridently oppose the project.

The hearing examiner rejected in April all points of contention by members of the group Kirkland Neighbors United, who had appealed approval of the project in January by the seven-member Kirkland Design Review Board. Many neighbors of the project are concerned about increased traffic and safety issues, but mostly oppose the size of the project as out of character with downtown Kirkland.

The Lake Street Place development is one of several contentious proposals in Kirkland, and in the long run would be spread out over three parcels and total 189,586 square feet, including the 26,635 of existing structures (see attached PDF file). It would include a four-story above-ground parking garage with office space on top in one parcel, and new office and retail space on the other two parcels, at 112 and 150 Lake Street.

But the project remains in the initial stages of city approval. Before any construction may begin, it must pass an environmental review under the State Environmental Policy Act, and then successfully clear the city building permit process.

City of Kirkland Senior Planner Jon Regala said that while the Design Review Board approved the entire project, the developer, Kirkland native Stuart McLeod, is planning to develop it in two phases. The first phase would be two stories of office space above the existing two-story structure housing McLeod’s Milagro Cantina restaurant, totaling just less than 14,000 square feet of new space.

“What he told me was that he would need to have a major tenant to proceed with Phase Two,” Regala said. “Lacking a tenant, he’s looking at a two-story office structure above Milagro.”

Neighbors opposed to that project as proposed include residents of the Portsmith Condominiums and Merrill Gardens retirement community, both just to the east. Residents of each have hired separate attorneys to represent them. The Kirkland Neighbors United group has created a website, which calls the project a “Costco-sized mixed-use building primarily comprised of office space” that is “unprecedented in size” for downtown Kirkland.

However, project architect Rick Chesmore of Chesmore/Buck Architecture noted that the current proposal is significantly smaller than originally proposed -- the first concept was approved by the Design Review Board in 2008. The current plan calls for five stories on one parcel at a maximum height of 55 feet, with rooftop terraces, decks and gardens on top to mitigate impacts on neighbors.

The Design Review Board meets next on May 6 at 7 p.m., at City Hall, to review issues not yet covered regarding the north and east façades of the project.