Hearing Examiner - Regular Meeting

Okay, looks like we are recording and are now on the record. I just want to verify, in addition to the proceeding being recorded, have any members of the public, are they able to view everything? I just, I don't know if any members are online or not. I want to make sure that they can hear that before we get started. I guess that would be it. Ms. Davis?

It looks like one has come in as a guest. But everybody can see everyone. Okay.

Okay. I just wanted to double check. I didn't know if there was anything additional you needed to do to admit everyone. So, okay. Just double checking on that. All right. Good evening. We're now on the record. I'm Susan Drummond, City of Kirkland Hearing Examiner Pro Tem. It is Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 7 o'clock in the evening. We are holding a public hearing on the International Community School Master Plan Amendment. The amendment would change the enrollment from 445 to 545 students. there are no building additions as part of the master pan amendment proposal as i understand it this is a process to be application that just means that in my role i hear the matter and i recommend whether the proposal meets the zoning code criteria or not city council makes the final decision The staff report summarized the criteria there in the zoning code at 152.70.3 and 15.20.130, but essentially they require that I find that the project is consistent with the development regulations. And if there is not a development regulation that's applicable, the comprehensive plan, that the proposal is consistent with the public health, safety, and welfare, and also that there is avoidance of material detriment to the surrounding residential neighborhood.

and that the proposal minimizes adverse impacts on the surrounding residential neighborhood.

This is a quasi-judicial proceeding. That just means it's somewhat formal. So when you testify, I will swear you in and I will formally admit exhibits. Also, I cannot have any conflicts of interest that would impair my ability to render a fair and impartial decision. I'm not aware of any, but if there are any concerns, now is the time to raise those. In terms of exhibits, I've received the staff report as well as attachments 1 through 14 to that, and those are all admitted. And I will be doing a site visit. I haven't done it before the hearing, but I will do it following this evening's hearing. In terms of the order of presentation, I typically will hear from the planning department first. They'll provide a summary of the proposal. Then we'll move to the applicant. They will present any additional facts they would like to present. I then will open the matter up for public comment. Anyone who is either online or in the hearing room and wishes to comment on the proposal may do so. I would ask when you comment to be sure to state your name, spell it, and then provide your email and also email. your mailing address as well. I think those are all the preliminary items that I need to address. Are there any procedural questions before we move to the planning department? Okay. I'm not seeing any. All right. So who is presenting for the planning department this evening?

That would be myself, Tony Levitt, senior planner with the planning department.

Okay. All right. Well, Mr. Levitt, I should swear to God, if you could state your name once more for the record.

Yeah, Tony Leavitt, Senior Planner with the City of Kirkland Planning Department.

And you swear to tell the truth under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of Washington?

I do. Thank you.

You may proceed when you are ready.

All right, great. Let me share my presentation here. Okay. Okay, can I make sure everybody see that?

Yes, I can see that just fine.

Great, thank you. Okay. So, again, yes, we are here for the International Community School Master Plan Amendments, file number ZON26-00059. So, just let me actually need to minimize this here. So, maybe. Apologize. Move that. No, that's fine. Take your time. Okay. Let me move that over here. Okay. So apologize again. Here's a vicinity map showing the International Community School, Community Elementary School campus located at 11133 Northeast 65th Street, which is located within the central Houghton neighborhood. It is located west of 405, east of 108th and south of 68th. Those are the major crossroads near the campus. The applicant, which is Lake Washington School District, is requesting approval of a master plan amendment that would increase the ICS enrollment maximum from 445 students to 545 students. The CES student enrollment maximum will remain at 70 students. The total campus enrollment is currently 515 students, and the proposal would increase the enrollment to 615 students. Again, as was mentioned previous, no new buildings or building additions are being proposed with the application. The project includes does include improvements to the main parking lot to increase the size of the onsite loading area and address some safety issues that were raised the site plan on the right shows the existing campus, including joining streets parking lots and the loading area. Just a little bit of a history regarding the campus. The CES first located on the site in 1983. In 1999, ICS located on the campus. Most recently in 2012, the city approved a master plan application to build a new school to house ICS and CES, also to parking lots for a total of 145 parking stalls and new play fields. The proposal also included an increase in ICS student enrollment from 380 students to 445 students. CES student enrollment remained at 70 students with that proposal. The approval also required an update of the existing transportation management plan parking management plan that was intended to prevent on street parking by students and parents. To prevent on street drop off and pick up by parents and to reduce the number of vehicles driven to and from the campus that document was signed and recorded on the property for. for the proposal. Additionally, the approval required for a new zoning permit application and review process for any increase in student enrollment and or building size. So that leads us to why we are here tonight. During the initial comment period for the application, staff received a total of 18 comment emails. All the emails have included as part of the staff advisory report. Some of the issues that were raised in the comments included the following. There were multiple neighbors raised concerns about vehicle backups on neighboring streets during the morning drop-off and afternoon pickup times. Additionally, the neighbors request that the size of the onsite loading and unloading area be expanded to accommodate additional vehicles. Another comment we received, a neighbor was concerned that parking for the staff and students was not adequate and would lead to parking on neighborhood streets. Additionally, neighbors requested that Lake Washington School District look to increase bus service to the campus and provide bus passes to students and staff. Another comment we received were multiple comments raised concerns about the traffic impacts on neighboring streets that would occur with the proposed enrollment increase. The comments also include multiple neighbors who raised concerns about the vehicles not stopping as they exit the main parking lot onto Northeast 65th Street, vehicles speeding on neighborhood streets, and drivers not stopping for pedestrians. Finally, one neighbor raised a concern about pedestrian safety along 111th Avenue between 60th and 62nd. As part of the staff report, staff did look at all these issues and provided responses to each of those issues. Additionally, the applicant has also provided some responses to some of those issues that were raised. Staff reviewed the proposal for compliance with the applicable development regulations. I'll kind of go through the list of regulations that we looked at. The first regulation is the required review process. Again, the 2012 master plan established enrollment limits of ICS of 445 students and required a new process to be permit application for any increase in enrollment or in our building square footage. As noted before, the applicant is proposing to increase the enrollment by 100 students. And as a result, the proposal requires approval of this process to be permit. The next regulation is the school location criteria. Staff looked at this and concluded that the existing school complies with the school location criteria. First, the proposal will not introduce new facilities or activities which would materially impact the character of the neighborhood. The proposal does not include any changes to the existing building or play fields. The applicant is proposing minor changes to the main parking lot that will help to address drop-off and pickup issues and some safety issues. Again, the site design changes will help to minimize adverse impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. Finally, the property does contain an existing school, so it meets that criteria. The next regulation, we looked at was parking parking for school uses are determined on a case by case basis. The applicant submitted a parking demand study that was reviewed by the city's transportation engineer based on the review review of the parking demand study the parking demand rate was set at. 0.12 parking stalls per ICS students. So based on an enrollment of 545 students, that would require a total of 66 parking stalls. The existing CES has a parking rate of 0.31 parking stalls per student for a total of 22 stalls needed for 70 students. This results in a total parking demand for the campus of 88 stalls. The existing campus, as noted previously, has 145 stalls. So per the TMP and PMP that was mentioned earlier, student parking is limited to 78 stalls. So taking that out of the 145, that will leave 67 stalls that will be available for staff and visitors. One condition that the city's transportation engineer included was they need to update the TMP and the requirement is that the applicant collect parking utilization data for the first three years after the enrollment increase in CURS starting in 2027 to substantiate the parking demand. and make appropriate changes to ensure parking does not spill onto neighboring streets. And then this next slide just shows the current location of parking areas on the campus. You can see there's some staff and visitor parking for a community elementary school on the west side of the campus. Staff visitor parking and student parking for ICS is on the east side of the campus. The zoning code requires that parking and pasture loading areas be designed to reduce impacts on neighboring streets. So this is the next regulation that we look at. Additionally, the code requires that the city determine the appropriate size of loading area on a case-by-case basis, depending on the number of attendees and the extent of the budding right-of-way improvements. Carpooling, staggering loading and unloading times, right-of-way improvements and other means be required to reduce traffic impacts on neighboring residential uses. The applicant, as part of the application, prepared a Q&A analysis for the site that looked at passenger loading area within the main parking lot access from Northeast 65th Street. Following the review of some of the public comments and staff review of the proposal, the applicant came back with some proposed improvements to the loading area. Those improvements are located here on the right. The applicant will go over these in more detail as part of their presentation. But this site plan on site just shows the location of some of these improvements. The city's transportation engineer reviewed the queuing analysis and proposed improvements and recommends approval subject to the conditions outlined in the staff memo. And these conditions include the installation of a flashing stop sign at the Northeast 65th Street entrance, additional signage for drivers entering and exiting the site, restyping of a crosswalk, extending the loading area, staff and police support for parking, and a requirement to address future traffic impacts. As stated previously, the zoning code states that a process to permit application may be approved only if it is first consistent with all applicable development regulations to the extent there is no regulation, the comprehensive plan, and is consistent with public safety and welfare, health and welfare. Staff has concluded the proposal is consistent with all the applicable development regulations and the comprehensive plan. Additionally, the proposal is consistent with the public health, safety and welfare requirements. The proposed increase in student enrollment will allow Lake Washington School District to serve additional students in the district while minimizing impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. In conclusion, staff is recommending approval of the application subject to the conditions outlined in the staff report. These conditions again include updates to the TMP, PMP, installation of signage and circulation improvements, and finally payment of traffic impact fees. So that at this time concludes staff's presentation. I will stop sharing my screen here.

Thank you, Mr. Leavitt. I don't have any questions for you at this time, but if we could make the PowerPoint a part of the record, if you could, I guess, provide it to Ms. Davis or whoever sends it on to me, that would be appreciated.

Okay. I am trying to figure out. I'm having a problem here on sharing my screen. Jessie, can you?

Yeah, I'll try and take it away.

Okay. Yeah, there should be a... Yeah, it's not giving my little feature here.

I wonder if I can get rid of it too. I don't know.

Sorry, I have too many screens open here and... Okay. Did that do it? Nope. No.

I can take you out of the meeting.

There you go. Have somebody else share.

Yeah. Okay. You know, we can move on to you. I'm sorry. Let me.

I have no idea why it's not. Okay.

I apologize.

That's fine. Um, Ms. Davis, do you, are you have a button on, on your end?

Um, I, It does not give me the option to take it away. I was just thinking if the next person that wants to share can share, and then if they don't get rid of that thing that he closed, then they'll stop sharing as well.

Okay. So the next, I think the department is, Mr. Levin, I think that completes the department.

Yes, it does. I'm sorry.

So then we'll be moving to the applicant. Does the applicant also have a PowerPoint?

Yes, we have a PowerPoint.

Okay. So Ms. Wolter, are you presenting for the applicant? Yes.

We have a couple, actually. We have Brian Buck, Executive Director of Capital Projects, and our third-party consultant from 10W Chandler.

Okay. So who is presenting first? And the reason I am, we're going to try to get the applicants screened up. I like this picture, but we'd like to move on. so who who was uh presenting first uh brian brian will yeah okay all right but i i just tried there we go sorry i found it i forgot i had moved that to a different screen so i apologize all right so uh mr buck i believe you are presenting first is that correct correct all right um if you can state your name once more for the record

I'm Brian Buck, Executive Director of Support Services Lake Washington School District.

And you swear to tell the truth under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of Washington?

Yes, I do.

Thank you. You may proceed when you are ready. And it looks like your PowerPoint will also become a part of the record. Is that what you intend?

Yeah.

Okay. All right. Just be sure to forward it to staff after the hearing, and then I'll have it as well.

Yeah, absolutely. So we just wanted to provide a little background on the International Community School and the Community School Elementary School. The ICS school is grades 6 through 12. It's a choice school that has an emphasis on visual and performing arts, humanities, and international studies. It has a complex curriculum that emphasizes interconnected learning and depth of understanding. This year they're implementing an international baccalaureate diploma program for grades 11 and 12. The small size and seven year program allows for strong long term relationships between students and teachers and experiential learning. opportunities are available each year for the Community school, it is grades one through five with a multi age model, so they have three classrooms they have an emphasis on individualized instruction small group projects and experiential learning. The community school's focus is prioritizing social-emotional learning and building relationships and involves enrichment programming provided through community and family partnerships. Go ahead, Ina. Next slide. So this is an overview aerial of the site. These are the two logos of the two schools. Whoops. We lost the visual, Ina.

Sorry, is it back now?

Yep. So the existing facility was built for a total of 615 students for both schools. The current allowable enrollment, as we noted earlier, for both schools is 515 students. The request to allow enrollment up to 615 students aligns student access to this school with the existing capacity with, again, no need for additional construction. Our community facility advisory committee had recommended an increase in choice program access and enrollment and voters in 2022 voted to increase high school capacity on the west side of the district. This is part of that. The other piece is the rebuild and enlarge of Emerson High School in Kirkland as well. And then I think Ina is going to introduce Chandler.

yes so um as a part of our process and tony mentioned this we hired a third party traffic consultant to do uh parking assessment traffic impact analysis and a parking management plan and chandler is today with us uh with tn 10w to present what we found so go ahead chandler um and let me swear you in first um and uh if you could provide state your name for the record chandler waldall

And you swear to tell the truth under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of Washington?

I do. Thank you.

And can you spell? I've got your I see your first name there, Chandler. Can you spell your last name?

It's W.A.L.D.A.L. Waldahl.

Thank you so much. You may proceed when you're ready.

Okay, thank you. I was just going to speak to the work that 10W did on this project and some of the traffic mitigation strategies that the applicant is proposing with this expansion project. So just a quick recap, 10W conducted a traffic impact analysis and a parking demand study where we analyzed traffic operations at several off-site study intersections as well as the existing site access driveways. And through these studies, we observed minimal queuing and delays during the peak pickup and drop off operations and the existing parking lots that currently support 145 stalls are expected to accommodate the future parking demand with the increased enrollment based on the parking study that we conducted. Just to note, 10W has worked on school projects for over two decades with Lake Washington School District, as well as several other school districts within Washington. And based on our traffic analysis and the supporting observations for this project, we did not observe anything out of the ordinary about ICS operations from a traffic perspective. With that said, we have an opportunity to improve operations, you know, with their increased enrollment. So the applicant team has agreed to provide these mitigation strategies that are shown on the screen. Would you like me to take over the sharing or do you want to just continue to share the screen? Can you see it? Yeah, I can see it. So I'm good with it as long as you are. Okay, great. So this screen summarizes the traffic mitigation strategies that we worked with the city on to improve safety as well as queuing capacity on site. Although the traffic analysis didn't necessarily indicate the additional queuing storage was needed, there are a couple of locations within the existing parking lot that we thought might be good opportunities to increase that storage capacity. And so on the screen, just starting from the site access at 65th and working our way down, we would install all new striping throughout the parking lot with dedicated queuing storage areas. And so the first one that Ina just showed, that's kind of where cars are existing And today, that's where all of the parents are dropping off and picking up their students. However, the other two locations that Ena will point to, those are being underutilized and not currently utilized by parents or students for pickup and drop off. And so with the traffic management plan that we're providing, any cars that are waiting for students or if there is You know, if the existing storage is full, then staff would direct parents to go to those locations and there's adequate space within the site for vehicles to move around the drop off and pick up lane to go utilize those two new areas. And so it actually increases the existing queuing capacity by 67%. So it's a pretty significant increase in available storage for pickup and drop off. And this is primarily for pickup. I would say that with most schools, parents picking up their students, they have the tendency to go and sit in their cars and wait. And so it kind of mitigates that where they have other opportunities to go and wait for their students. So with the ultimate goal that we're keeping all of the queuing on site as opposed to backing up onto the adjacent streets. Another significant improvement with this mitigation strategy is the delineation and channelization that's throughout the site. Under existing conditions, as I mentioned, there's no striping that helps drivers kind of understand where they're going. And so with that, as Ina's pointing to, it's clear that parents who want to park will just go straight. Parents who want to pick up and drop off their students will head south, southwest throughout the site and circulate around. One of the concerns that safety concerns that we had with under existing conditions is that given there's no delineation, it kind of resulted in some parents at least observed by others to just go straight on to 65th without stopping. And so by providing the stop bar and a flashing stop sign, it's really indicating to parents and students that they need to stop before going on to the adjacent street traffic. So those were some of the strategies. There's a couple others on here, like a new crosswalk and stop bar further south, and then arrows that would kind of help with circulation throughout the site. Just to touch on the parking management plan quickly, that we would have staff and officers that are directing traffic to ensure that parents and students understand how the flow of traffic is intended to operate and operate. just assist with better circulation throughout the site as well. That is all I had. I don't know if Lake Washington School District would like to add anything to what I've already said.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Chandler. Ms. Holster, was there another individual who was going to testify for the district?

No, that's it. Thank you.

All right. So I don't have any questions for either of the individuals who testified at this point. So we will turn to public comment. I guess the first question, is there anyone in the hearing room who would like to comment?

There is not.

Okay. And then is there anyone online who would like to comment? And I'm not, if there is someone online who would like to comment, if you could raise your hand. I'm not seeing any raised hands. It looks like there's no one online who would like to comment. Is that correct?

One just raised her hand.

Oh, there's a hand raised.

I'm going to make her a panelist.

Okay.

Ms. Anderson, can you speak now?

Hi, good evening, Ms. Anderson. I can hear you. I cannot see you. That's fine if you aren't able to appear visually.

Yeah, I don't see on my screen the video unlock, which... I have a new screen, so I apologize. You don't need to see me.

Okay, all right. We can halt for a second if you need a little time to figure it out, but I can hear you just fine now.

That's fine. Karen Anderson.

And let me start you in. You swear for him to tell the truth under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of Washington?

I do. Thank you.

You may proceed when you are ready.

I appreciate all the efforts and the studies that have gone into this, and I was looking at your diagram, and I guess my question is, have you had situations before where increased signage and arrows on the pavement, etc., really do ease up the traffic that's backed up on the street? This is has been a significant problem. And, you know, you've even had officers standing at the entrance to the school trying to manage the traffic, and yet the parents that come up park right up to the intersection, blocking the stop signs, practically blocking the intersections, and You can hardly navigate through. And then, of course, they do pull out right in front of cars coming down the hill. So it's amazing someone hasn't gotten killed. So my question really is, have you had success with just this signage and such? Is it really going to help fix the problem?

Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Once we complete public testimony, I'll turn back to the applicant and the department to address the questions that arise, including the one you just raised.

Thank you.

All right. Is there anyone else online? I'm not seeing anybody else, but is there anyone else online who would like to comment on the proposal? Ms. Davis, are you seeing anyone else or was that the only individual?

That's the only individual with their hand up.

Okay. All right. So we have concluded public comment. I guess I would turn back to the applicant and maybe this would be Ms. Waldahl to address. It was a traffic related question about whether kind of the mitigation measures that were outlined if I think in in your experience, if that helps with the the queuing issue and then some of the safety concerns that were raised. So so I guess I turn to the applicant first on that.

Okay, I can speak to that. So pick up and drop off operations, I understand they can oftentimes be tricky. I will say that the mitigation strategies that we've proposed are kind of proven countermeasures in terms of standard engineering, traffic engineering practice. A lot of the backup, at least from what we heard and did not observe, was due to parents parking too close to the intersection and backing up onto the street. And so to provide the signage, the stop signage and delineation at that entrance is expected to improve conditions at the intersection.

Thank you. Ms. Waldo, anything further? Okay. All right. So I'll turn back to the department. Mr. Levitt, was there anything else that the department wanted to add on traffic? And I know you did address that initially in the presentation. There's a fair amount of analysis in the record on these traffic issues as well. So, yeah.

Yeah, I would add, we do have Tang Nguyen from the Public Works Department here. Tang, do you have anything that you would like to add?

And Mr. Nguyen, if so, I should swear you in.

Okay. Can you hear me?

Yes, I can. If you can state your name for the record.

My name is Teng Nguyen, first name spelled T-H-A-N-G, last name spelled N-G-Y-E-N. And you swear from Tell the Truth under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of Washington? I do.

Thank you. You may proceed.

Yeah, to answer Ms. Anderson's question, we believe the mitigation proposed by the school by increasing the queuing capacity will help to minimize any queue spill back out onto the street. And particularly, I think this is going to be an ongoing monitoring process I think Chandler had mentioned that if queuing persists, even with the additional queue capacity, then staff would help to manage that. And also, In addition to that, there is a parking lot to the northwest corner of the school that's underutilized. So we can shift staff parking there to provide additional parking spaces for drop off and pick up for parents, drop off and pick up.

Thank you, Mr. Wim. All right. So I think that concludes the testimonial piece of this hearing. As noted, the two PowerPoints, if those could be provided, those are added to the record. A recommendation from me will be out end of next week. That will be forwarded to the planning department and then the department will forward that on to the applicant and any parties. And I guess actually back to Ms. Anderson, I neglected to get your email and address. And that way you can get a copy of the recommendation.

Yes, thank you. Airsong, A-I-R-S-O-N-G-1, numeral one, at AOL.com.

Okay. Airsong1 at AOL.com.

Yes. The dinosaurs.

Address 11214 Northeast 63rd Street. Okay. 11214 Northeast 63rd Street.

Correct. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much for that. Okay. So as noted, I'll be taking a look over the exhibits and then also considering the testimony. And then my recommendation will be out in the next week. And again, for the supply department, the department will forward that on to the parties of record. Are there any procedural questions from anyone?

No.

I will just add, I will send you, I've asked the applicant to send me a PDF of their PowerPoint registration. I will forward that to you along with mine when I receive that.

Okay. Thank you so much. All right then. Thank you all for your appearances this evening. We are adjourned.