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EXPLAINER · HOUSING

Housing & Zoning

How this issue works and who decides it. We keep it up to date. About our labels

Housing policy should serve the people who live here and the people actually coming, every housing type included.

Kirkland is already one of the densest cities in Washington, fourth in the state’s official density table, and it has said yes to decades more growth. This page covers who decides what gets built, what the plan assumes, what the market is saying back, and where the decisions stand right now.

In short

  • Kirkland chose a deeper affordability target than the regional formula assigned and faster rules than the state required. The market has responded to some of it: small middle housing is thriving, and the plan’s showcase district sits still.

  • On the fee and the station area, the city’s own data and its Planning Commission pointed toward easing up. On September 1 the council declined to move the fee threshold, so the rules adopted in June 2025 stand.

  • Every housing type counts, including the standard single-family home most Kirkland families actually want.

PART 1 · WHERE THINGS STAND

Where things stand (October 2026)

Next council vote on housing policy: November 17. Council adopts its 2027 state legislative agenda. One council member asked, and the work group agreed, to add that Kirkland’s payments into ARCH, the regional housing fund, should count toward the city’s state housing targets. Written comment to CityCouncil@kirklandwa.gov reaches council before that vote.

  • Faith-based housing: adopted. On October 20 council adopted the code (Ordinance O-4950) 7–0 on the consent calendar, with no discussion. On 64 faith-owned parcels, affordable housing will be approved by staff with no design review or hearing, and buildings can reach 50 feet in low-density zones. A 2019 state law requires cities like Kirkland to adopt a code like this and leaves the terms to each city. The terms are in the record below.

  • Middle housing, round two. Staff told council on October 20 that builders use up the allowed floor area with fewer, larger units. Council asked staff to develop options on floor area and lot coverage that reward more, smaller homes. Next stop is the Planning Commission, with no date set.

  • The affordable housing fee. It starts January 1, 2027: 10% of units affordable, or $15 per square foot above 2,000. Council kept it on September 1. The planning director reports back in January 2028.

  • The station area. No significant development has started there, staff said in April. The first major proposal, Slate Peak, is a 65-foot building with about 170 apartments and 192 parking stalls, though the code no longer requires residential parking there. On September 15 council told staff to keep negotiating. A revised term sheet comes back first, and the council’s calendar lists the development agreement for December 8.

  • Holmes Point. Two narrow overlay code changes, on lot coverage and tree removal, are headed to a Planning Commission hearing.

  • Already in effect. State parking limits (April), lot splitting (June), and the parking code cleanup (September 15).

  • Still in process. Development agreements with affordability components at Goodwill, Michaels and Houghton Village.

PART 1 · HOW IT WORKS

How housing decisions get made here

Who decides

  • The State Legislature sets the floor for local zoning, and it raises that floor nearly every session: middle housing in single-family zones (HB 1110, 2023), parking caps near transit (ESSB 5184, 2025), lot splitting by administrative review (HB 1096), density and 20-year tax exemptions near transit stations (3SHB 1491, 2025), and housing bonuses on faith-organization land. As more decisions move to Olympia, the discretion Kirkland still holds matters more.

  • Regional formulas assign Kirkland’s housing target through King County’s planning policies. (How Kirkland’s housing target was set)

  • The City Council adopts the zoning code. The state’s floor is a minimum, and Kirkland has gone past it more than once and has often moved before the state’s deadlines.

  • The Planning Commission holds the public hearings and shapes recommendations before council votes. Twice in the last year, on the fee threshold and the station area, its recommendations were the more moderate option.

  • The market decides what actually gets built. No ordinance can force a project to pencil.

What “affordable” means, and what the target asks

In official programs, an “affordable” unit is one with a covenant tying its rent or price to a percentage of area median income (AMI). King County’s 2025 limits put dollars on the tiers:

  • 30% AMI: about $33,000 for a single person, $47,000 for a family of four

  • 50% AMI: about $55,000 / $78,500

  • 60% AMI: about $66,000 for a single person

  • 80% AMI: about $85,000 / $121,000, more than many Kirkland teachers, nurses and firefighters earn

  • Median (100% AMI): about $110,000 / $157,000

Kirkland’s 2044 target assigns the city 13,200 new homes, and roughly 87% of them are designated for households at or below 80% AMI, including 7,388 at or below 30%. The formula gives almost no credit for the standard market-rate family home, the type many Kirkland families are looking for. (The full story of how that number was set)

Kirkland chose to go faster and higher

  • In the regional negotiation, Kirkland supported the option that gave it the largest deeply affordable target, roughly 2,151 more units (about 39%) at the lowest income tier than the baseline formula.

  • The 2024 draft Comprehensive Plan proposed reclassifying every residential neighborhood as “Residential Mixed-Use.” That was reversed in late 2024 after extensive public engagement, which is proof that public comment changes outcomes.

  • The June 2025 middle housing package met the state’s deadline and added something the state doesn’t require: an affordable housing requirement in low-density zones, with the fee aimed at larger homes. Since then Kirkland has adopted state parking and lot-splitting rules months ahead of their deadlines.

Production followed. Kirkland led the state in middle housing code years before the mandates, and the city’s May 2026 data shows middle housing permits “continue to be very strong, even in challenging market conditions.”

How much Kirkland has grown

Kirkland has 5,548 residents per square mile of land, fourth among Washington’s 281 cities and towns, behind only Seattle, Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline. It was 22nd in 1980. On the Census Bureau’s 2025 figures, it’s the densest of the 49 western cities its size outside California.

Homebuilding points the same way. The state counts 44,555 homes in Kirkland as of April 2026, up 5,243 since 2019. The 2044 target works out to an even pace of 528 new homes a year, and Kirkland has averaged about 749, roughly 42% ahead.

The shortfall is in the homes the target is mostly made of. The city’s housing dashboard shows 829 income-restricted homes against a pace line of 2,806 for 2025, about 30%, and closer to 18% if you count from 2019. At the deepest tier, King County counts about 205 homes delivered through 2023, with more than 7,000 still to go.

Our analysis: Kirkland is adding homes faster than its target asks. The gap is in income-restricted homes, and more market-rate building won’t close it on its own. That’s why we keep asking which homes a policy will produce, and not only how many.

Where the fee money goes

The affordable housing fee doesn’t build anything by itself. It goes to ARCH, A Regional Coalition for Housing, which Kirkland and its Eastside neighbors formed in the 1990s. Member cities pay into one pool, and its awards draw state, federal and private money behind them. Since 1992 ARCH has put more than $120 million into East King County, funding 110 projects and more than 6,000 homes.

Kirkland has put in about $15.1 million since 1999, and 24 ARCH-funded projects with 1,243 affordable homes sit inside the city. By our arithmetic, that’s about 13% of the pool and about 21% of the homes, for a city that is roughly 16% of the coalition by population. The money moves both ways. In the round approved in February 2026, Kirkland committed $1,261,800 across seven projects, and one of them was in Kirkland.

Our analysis: a home built in Bellevue counts toward Bellevue’s target, and residents are right to want that said plainly. Still, the balance runs in Kirkland’s favor, and the pool buys housing the private market doesn’t produce at any price.

What’s actually getting built

Kirkland’s middle housing rules are working. Permits hit a record in the year ending February 2026. Of the 663 middle housing units permitted since March 2020, about 95% are smaller than 2,000 square feet, because the code caps ADUs and cottages at those sizes. Twenty-nine are townhomes.

For a family that needs room, the other paths are narrow:

  • Apartments could supply three-bedroom homes and mostly don’t. Two recent projects total 855 homes, and nineteen are three-bedroom.

  • Detached houses supply them at a price. The median new single-family home sold between March 2024 and March 2025 went for $3,098,000.

  • Townhomes give family-sized space for less, and Kirkland has permitted 29 in six years.

The city’s first real measurement of the fee showed the same gap. Staff looked at 104 single-family homes in low-density zones with permits finished between May 2024 and November 2025. Two measured between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet. Five measured between 2,500 and 3,000, and the other 97 were larger. Every one of those permits predates the fee.

The fee is charged on each square foot above the line, so the line sets the relative price of each size. At 2,000 square feet, a 2,400-square-foot family home owes about $6,000 and a 3,500-square-foot house about $22,500. At 2,500, the family home owes nothing and the large house still owes $15,000.

Our analysis: Kirkland is building small units the code caps and large houses most buyers can’t afford, with almost nothing in between. The missing middle here is missing by size as much as by type. It is why we supported the Planning Commission’s 2,500-square-foot line. Changing a cost isn’t the same as producing a house, and nobody can promise that band would fill. A fee that isn’t in force yet can’t have produced evidence either way, though, and we’d rather test the higher line than lock in the lower one on the same lack of proof.

The staff memo behind the fee says it is partly meant to “counter-balance current market preferences for large, single-family homes that do not support the City’s affordability goals.” Residents can decide for themselves whether that’s a job a housing fee should have.

The market has answered

  • The 700-plus acres around the NE 85th station were the plan’s showcase for growth. In July 2026 the city wrote that the district “has not yet developed into the mixed-use center envisioned by the City.”

  • A local builder testified in June 2026 that projects pencil in Bothell, Bellevue, Redmond and Sammamish but not in Kirkland.

  • Detached family homes draw multiple offers while many new townhomes and condos linger (Seattle Times, July 2026).

  • The city has adjusted: lower affordability requirements on the Michaels and Goodwill sites, ownership units allowed up to 100% AMI, and pioneer provisions extended to the end of 2029.

  • The Planning Commission recommended “incentives for development rather than added restrictions” in the station area and the 2,500-square-foot fee line. Council went another way on both.

What we’re for

Kirkland went faster and higher than the state required. Since then the market has spoken. On the fee line and the station-area rules, the city’s own data, staff adjustments and Planning Commission recommendations pointed toward easing up, and council declined both times. The open question is whether council follows that evidence next time. We think growth policy should be moderate, should be checked in public against how people actually live, and should respect every housing type. Our analysis: the single-family home is the one most Kirkland families want, and no policy on the books today is aimed at it.

We’re for the middle housing Kirkland pioneered, growth concentrated where infrastructure already exists, and incentives that let good projects go forward. On one type we’d go further than the city. A townhome is the only home Kirkland builds that gives a family three or four bedrooms without a three-million-dollar price tag, and the number we’d most like to see move is 29.

Sources & city records

Last updated October 22, 2026. We keep this page current. The explainer stays put, and Where things stand is updated as the record changes. Every link below goes to the primary source, a government body or the state Legislature, so you can check the underlying record yourself.

PART 2 · YOUR LENS

Questions to ask about any housing decision

Bring these to a council agenda item, a Planning Commission hearing, or a development agreement. Each one comes from something that has already happened in Kirkland.

  1. Which housing types does it favor, and which does it squeeze out? Since 2020, about 95% of Kirkland’s middle housing units have been under 2,000 square feet, and 29 have been townhomes. A rule can add units without adding homes a family can use.

  2. Affordable to whom, how many homes, and for how long? “Affordable” means a tier of area median income, and 80% AMI is about $85,000 for one person. Ask for the tier, the count and how long the covenant lasts.

  3. What evidence is it built on, and when will anyone check? The affordable housing fee was kept in 2026 with no performance data, and its only built-in look-back is a report in January 2028. Ask whether a decision comes with a date to be measured.

  4. Will anyone actually build it? The NE 85th station area was zoned for major mixed-use growth, and in July 2026 the city said it hadn’t happened yet. Zoning allows a building. It can’t make one get built.

  5. What did the Planning Commission recommend? Twice in 2026, on the fee threshold and the station area, the commission recommended the more moderate option and council did not take it. When the two differ, the commission’s reasoning is in the record and worth reading.

  6. Who carries the cost? Fees, tax exemptions and impact-fee waivers each land on someone: buyers, renters or every taxpayer. Our Taxes & MFTEs primer shows how to trace it.

What you can do

Written comment to CityCouncil@kirklandwa.gov becomes part of the public record, and it does the most good before the packet comes out, about five days ahead of a meeting. Planning Commission hearings are where a proposal is still being shaped. Our guides cover how to read a council packet and how to reach the council.

Join our Facebook group to talk about these issues with neighbors. It’s private, so request to join.

PART 3 · THE RECORD SO FAR

The record so far

Housing decisions and key city reports, newest first. Where we’ve published a recap, the date links to it. A tag marks each decision where Kirkland acted earlier than state law required or went past it, based on the City’s own staff reports.

  • Oct 20, 2026. Council adopts the faith-based housing code (Ordinance O-4950, 7–0, on the consent calendar without discussion). On 64 parcels held by about 37 faith organizations, affordable housing is approved by staff with no design review and no hearing. A project qualifies at the state minimum (half its homes at or below 80% of area median income, or a fifth at or below 50%), or with deeper affordability at exchange rates where one home under 30% of median income counts as two of the 50% units. Heights: 35 feet in low-density zones and 40 in medium, or 50 and 60 for a project whose set-aside is, in the ordinance’s words, “at least five percent above the minimum.” The bonus stays with the land if a congregation sells to an affordable housing builder. A 2019 state law requires cities like Kirkland to adopt a code of this kind and leaves the terms to each city.

    Oct 20, 2026. Middle housing study session. Staff report that builders use up the floor area a lot allows with fewer, larger units, and that the city permitted 168 ADUs, cottages and small plexes in 2025, the most in any year since it began counting in 2018. Council directs staff to develop options on floor area and lot coverage that reward more, smaller homes, for Planning Commission review.

    Oct 20, 2026. Council launches two Holmes Point overlay code changes, 6–0 each: lot coverage options between 40% and 50%, and tree removal at one or two trees a year. Both go to a Planning Commission hearing.

    Oct 6, 2026. Council approves the Arete agreement (Resolution R-5747, 7–0). A $500,000 interest-free city loan holds 224 apartments at 450 Central Way affordable for up to 60 years, 219 of them at 60% of area median income.

    Sept 15, 2026. Council adopts the parking code cleanup (Ordinance O-4948), removing the old parking standards from the zoning code. Council also tells staff to keep negotiating the Slate Peak development agreement, a 65-foot building with about 170 apartments in the station area. No vote.

    Sept 1, 2026. The 2,500-square-foot fee threshold returns. Council amends it to raise the fee to $20 (4–3), then the amended ordinance fails 3–4. The June 2025 rule stands. The same packet carries the first measurement of home sizes: 2 of 104 new houses between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet.

  • Aug 27, 2026. The Planning Commission holds its public hearing on the faith-based housing code.

    Aug 5, 2026. Council briefing on faith-based housing. Council supports applying the two-for-one affordability exchange to all required affordable units.

    July 21, 2026. A city memo says the NE 85th district “has not yet developed into the mixed-use center envisioned by the City.”

    June 16, 2026. Raising the fee threshold to 2,500 square feet (O-4937) fails 3–3 and is tabled. Lot splitting (O-4938) passes 6–0. Ahead of the state deadline: the City’s work program lists July 27, 2027 as the date state law requires it.

    May 19, 2026. Fee check-in. Staff recommend keeping the fee as adopted and call middle housing permits “very strong.”

    May 5, 2026. Council bans new townhomes and detached homes across most of the station area (O-4936, 7–0) and keeps them allowed on a few transition lots east of 124th Ave NE.

    April 2026. Council adopts the state’s parking limits (O-4935) and drops parking minimums for all but commercial uses in the NE 85th station area. Ahead of the state deadline: state law gives Kirkland until January 27, 2027, and staff describe the ordinance and the station-area exemption as adopted “early.” Goes beyond state law: the staff memo says eliminating station-area minimums “goes beyond the SB 5184 requirements.” The 2026–28 Planning Work Program is adopted April 21.

    Feb 3, 2026. ARCH funding round (Resolution R-5715): $1,261,800 across seven projects, one of them in Kirkland.

  • June 17, 2025. Council adopts the middle housing package (O-4905), including the affordable housing fee that takes effect January 1, 2027. The state’s middle housing deadline was June 30, 2025. Goes beyond state law: the affordable housing requirement in low-density zones is the City’s own addition, which staff described to council as “not required by state law.”

    Late 2024. The draft Comprehensive Plan’s proposal to reclassify every residential neighborhood as “Residential Mixed-Use” is dropped after public engagement.

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