Weidner Fought the Michaels Rezone. Now a Weidner Company Owns the Site.

Our reading of the record. The facts are sourced, and the conclusions are ours. About our labels

In 2025, Weidner asked the City to scale back an unusually generous rezone next door. Now a Weidner affiliate owns the land.

In short:

• A Weidner-affiliated company paid $8.5 million for the Michaels site in Juanita, next door to Weidner's headquarters.

• Ten months earlier, Council nearly tripled the height limit there, to 75 feet, adopting most of a Planning Commission package that staff said carried "atypical allowances."

• Weidner had asked for 50 feet. It hasn't said what it will build.

The company that warned the City a project next door "would act as a skyscraper in a neighborhood center" now owns the lot. A Weidner affiliate paid $8.5 million for the 1.26-acre Michaels property at 9755 NE Juanita Drive, about 61% above assessed value, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported Oct. 27. Weidner Apartment Homes is headquartered next door.

The Business Journal story didn't mention that in 2025, Weidner asked the City to cut the proposed height by a third.

From 26 feet to 75

The Michaels site had a 26-foot height limit, the lowest staff found in any neighborhood center zone. Council raised it to 75 feet for mixed-use buildings.

The only taller allowance staff found in a neighborhood center, 78 feet, is in the same Juanita center, but only on parts of properties 11 acres and larger. Kingsgate allows 60 feet, with conditions. Staff's "base" model for neighborhood centers called for 60 feet, with 75 possible through a development agreement or bonus incentives. Councilmember Neal Black's amendment along those lines failed 2 to 5.

Other parts went further than usual too. Ordinance O-4920, adopted 6 to 1 on Dec. 9, 2025, removed the density cap and lets a building cover the whole lot, with none of the upper-story step-backs most neighborhood centers require. It also waives the City's green building standards, which most recent commercial upzones add, and applies a looser affordable housing rule that staff said "is not currently applied in any other areas of the City." The Planning Commission wanted both breaks with no end date. Council made them expire after 2029. The Goodwill site got the same terms.

Some Planning Commission recommendations "diverge from standard zoning practice in the rest of Kirkland," staff wrote in July. In December, staff wrote of "atypical allowances" compared with most neighborhood centers, and of council members' concerns about the "unprecedented flexibility" the Commission recommended.

The owner got the 75 feet he asked for and no density cap. Council did add two requirements: ground-floor businesses along 75% of both street frontages (4 to 3) and a walking path between Juanita Bay and Juanita Beach parks, or payment toward one (6 to 1). Councilmember Jon Pascal, who proposed the frontage rule, cast the lone vote against the ordinance. He cited the precedent of zoning for single parcels, a mismatch in height and scale, and lost commercial land.

Weidner's objections

On June 12, 2025, the day of the Planning Commission's public hearing, Weidner founder Dean Weidner, who died in March 2026, signed a letter to City Manager Kurt Triplett. It warned of up to 300 more vehicles at "a complicated 5-way intersection." That was the letter that called the project a skyscraper.

The next day, Weidner's director of capital projects, Aaron Bourgeois, emailed the letter to planning staff and the Planning Commission. He attached a recorded parking easement between the two lots. It bars the Michaels owner from seeking approvals that would make the Weidner lot its main entrance. A week later he emailed six council members asking to meet. Two replied, and one set a meeting. Such meetings are routine.

Bourgeois testified July 1. "We're usually on the other side of this conversation," he told Council, speaking as a housing provider. The next day he sent Council a massing drawing and written remarks asking for a 50-foot limit. "It would still be a feasible development," he wrote.

Staff's memo for Council's July 15 meeting, dated June 23, said, "No public comments have been received since the public hearing." Two of the three planners who wrote it had received Weidner's letter from Bourgeois on June 13. The memo summarized earlier comments, including traffic and parking worries, but didn't mention Weidner or the easement. Council members heard from Weidner directly.

Neighbors weighed in too

The rezone had backers, among them housing advocates and residents who wanted more homes, walkable streets and the park link. It also drew opposition. In September 2024, Council formally received a petition titled "Stop proposed development where Michael's craft store is located in Juanita." Residents raised traffic, parking and the wetlands beside Juanita Bay Park. Redevelopment would also mean losing Michaels, a longtime Juanita store. The Finn Hill Neighborhood Alliance pressed the City on traffic and access.

The seller

Karl Pettersson's family bought the property in 1997 for $1.33 million. He told Council in July 2025 that 75 feet was what it would take "to make the project worth developing." Without it, he said, he would re-lease the building for 20 years, with options for 20 more. In November, his attorney told Council, "He's not a developer, he's just the owner." Less than a year after the vote, he sold.

Our view

Weidner described this site's problems in detail. As owner, it now has to solve them. If Weidner interests hold both lots, they could rework much of the easement. And Weidner told Council a 50-foot building would still be feasible, which would still mean new homes.

Weidner hasn't said why it bought the site. The price may reflect the new zoning, or the value of controlling the lot next door. Nothing in the code holds it to less than 75 feet.

An owner that will live next door has good reason to build well. If Weidner builds close to the 50 feet it asked for, with access that works for its neighbors, that would be worth celebrating, and Weidner would have earned Kirkland's thanks.

What happens next

Weidner hasn't filed plans. We've asked the company for comment and will add its answer. When permits are filed, we'll report the height, unit count and access they show.

Sources & city records

Last updated: October 2026.

• Puget Sound Business Journal, "Upzoned Kirkland retail property sells to national apartment investor," Oct. 27, 2026 (behind a paywall): bizjournals.com

• City of Kirkland records released Aug. 6, 2025 under public records request P052322: Dean Weidner letter of June 12, 2025; Weidner emails of June 13 and June 19, 2025; written remarks and massing drawing, July 1 and 2, 2025.

• City Council meetings of July 1, July 15, Sept. 2, Nov. 5 and Dec. 9, 2025 (video and agenda packets): kirkland.granicus.com. Staff memos: July 15, 2025 meeting (memo dated June 23; E-pages 4, 7 and 20); Sept. 2, 2025 meeting (memo dated July 22; E-page 4); Nov. 5, 2025 (E-pages 682 to 684, neighborhood center comparison); Dec. 9, 2025 (E-pages 543 to 546). Dec. 9 minutes and amendment votes: Jan. 20, 2026 council packet.

• Petition G-24-242, received by Council Sept. 3, 2024 (minutes in the Sept. 17, 2024 packet).

• Ordinance O-4920 (file numbers CAM20-00676 and CAM24-00910).

• City Council meeting schedule: ccsched.pdf

• Planning Commission calendar: kirklandwa.gov

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