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Kirkland council approves Emerson campus master‑plan amendment to replace Emerson school building
Summary
After a closed‑record hearing and a recommendation from the hearing examiner, the council voted 7–0 to approve the Emerson campus process 2B permit allowing demolition of the existing Emerson building and construction of a new 51,500 sq ft, two‑story education building; enrollment on the campus will rise from 268 to 435 students under the approved plan.
The Lake Washington School District sought a master‑plan amendment for the Emerson campus that would demolish the existing Emerson school building and construct a two‑story, approximately 51,500 square‑foot education building for Emerson while retaining the existing gymnasium and Northstar Middle School. Senior planner Tony Levit summarized the project scope, parking and landscaping proposals and responses to public comments: the campus would provide 115 parking stalls (staff estimated a demand of 101), install 76 new trees on site to offset the removal of landmark trees, replace an on‑site pond with an engineered detention vault that meets state and local requirements, and include a cultural resource inadvertent‑discovery plan requested by the Duwamish tribe.
At the closed‑record hearing, staff and the applicant provided testimony and responses to the written comments. The hearing examiner recommended approval with conditions covering parking‑and‑circulation management, tree mitigation, landscape buffers, lighting controls and a fence modification for a 60‑foot playfield net to retain balls on site.
The council moved to adopt the hearing examiner's recommendation and passed Resolution R5724 on a 7–0 vote, authorizing the issuance of the process 2B permit subject to the conditions listed by the hearing examiner. Tony Levit said the vote will allow the district to proceed with the design and required pre‑construction steps under the conditions imposed by the city. The council's action implements the land‑use decision in the public record; no additional public testimony was accepted at the meeting because the matter was treated as quasi‑judicial and the hearing record before the examiner was closed.
The city will require the applicant to finalize a parking and circulation management plan and to provide required on‑site tree mitigation and landscape buffers before building permits are issued. The council's resolution and the examiner's conditions will be part of the project's permit file and compliance program.
