Triad was involved with the design of a cottage project within the city of Kirkland and it was a great success with many sustainable and low impact elements worked into the design. The cottage zoning regulations were a great incentive for the developer to create a sustainable project.

The Green Kirkland Partnership is a great program for the removal of invasive species, expanding public awareness of invasive species, and reclaiming native habitits within thier parks and open spaces. But the program is focused on only this item and is not development based. So it may be hyped a bit but still a very important issue.

They also won a Built Green Hammer Award for the city’s Green Building Pilot Program which provides expidited and priority permit review for developers who integrate sustainable practices into thier resedential developments within the city.

So all in all I think they are ahead of the curve compared to most city’s within the Puget Sound region.

For my CEP (Community, Environment, and Planning) program senior project at the UW I worked with Transportation Choices Coalition to audit how sustainable 5 cities transportation system are. They included Kirkland, Seattle, Edmonds, Bellevue, and Redmond. I specifically worked on the parking aspects of the project, however a large portion of the project focused on zoning.

In general I can tell you that each city, besides Bellevue (which is a newcomer to sustainability), had some very encourages policies.

- Kirkland has been especially progressive in its zoning codes and of all the suburban cities it has the most compact and walkable downtown. I also know that the city council and public works department are very committed to sustainability. There is a reason that Kirkland is the model community that agencies like PSCR looks to when they define smart growth.

- Seattle was obviously in the lead. The field that they lead the most in was parking requirements (or lack there of) and on-street parking management. A lot of the changes that have been made in SLU are a perfect model of what a sustainable transportation policies create.

- Edmonds was a surprise to me. They greatly outshine any other Snohomish county city. They are very clear about the kind of development they want in their downtown and it is all good. Of suburban cities Edmonds and Kirkland are tied for the most sustainable.

- As I said earlier Bellevue has been MIA until just recently. They are expecting to take a large portion of the eastside’s growth in a very dense downtown, which is good, however I question what kind of form it will take. Here is one example (please correct me if I’m wrong). Bellevue’s first and only LEED project (Bellevue Towers) is currently under construction while Seattle has how many?

- Redmond has done a lot especially on the TDM side. They are the only city with a TDM program that goes above the state mandated program. They have also implemented a complete street ordinance as well. Until recently however their downtown has not seen much development besides Redmond Town Center.