A message from Mayor Nigel Herbig

Throughout our recent Love Where You Live (LWYL) community engagement project, we heard you, the community, call for two main things:

• More open spaces where we can recreate, interact with nature, and access our waterfront; and
• Economic development that will produce more local restaurants and shopping opportunities without having to leave Kenmore

While we have made important gains in our downtown and waterfront parks in the last decade, we still have more to do in delivering on what you want. In fact, we have a large portion of our downtown waterfront—Lakepointe—that is blighted, underutilized, and inaccessible to the public.

Each time we cross the Sammamish River bridge, we can all look over at Lakepointe and envision what we’re currently missing out on. We shouldn’t have to leave Kenmore to enjoy what other cities have: A restored natural waterfront with a drop-dead gorgeous park overlooking the lake. A walkable urban village with cool restaurants, local shopping, and a place for people to live. A place we’d be proud to have our family and friends visit—right here in our hometown.

During the LWYL campaign, we heard a lot from the community about Lakepointe. We heard unequivocally that you, the community, want Lakepointe to transform. Joined together, the City and the community—including each and every one of you—can make that happen. Together, we’ve delivered on a transformed downtown at the Hangar and Town Square, and we partnered to deliver on the Walkways and Waterways projects.  With this track record, we know what we can do together and how to do it at Lakepointe.

To get there, we’re working on a plan:

Step 1 of the plan was to find out what you want at Lakepointe. The LWYL campaign gave us a wealth of very helpful input.

Step 2 - City staff are in negotiations with the property owner and focusing on acquiring about 12-15 acres of the 40-acre Lakepointe property. This includes a 100-150 foot wide swath along most of Lakepointe’s shoreline, as well as a several acre park at the west end overlooking the lake. But let me be clear about this step: Without agreement from the property owner we will not be able to move forward with acquiring this portion of Lakepointe and turning it into a waterfront park.

Step 3 - We applied for several grants to help us acquire the portion of the property along the shoreline, including a King County Conservation Futures grant that we should be receiving word on soon.

Step 4 - Once we reach agreement with the property owner, we will move forward with performing thorough due diligence before fully committing to purchase the property. Due diligence includes testing for pollutants and contaminants to ensure that the land is safe. Due diligence also includes working with the Department of Ecology and other entities and regulatory stakeholders to receive confirmation and direction on how best to proceed with transforming Lakepointe.

Step 5 - We are in negotiation with the property owner on an agreement that would initiate a process to find and engage a potential developer to transform the rest of Lakepointe into an amazing, walkable, urban village.

Step 6 - Eventually, we will need to come back to you, the voters, to help us fund the property acquisition and development of the public portions, including the shoreline park and the central park. This ask will likely be in the form of a voter-approved tax measure in the next couple of years. 

Please note that a project of this magnitude takes time—even years—to bring to fruition. But with the will and the vision, I’m confident that we can come together as a community to make it happen.

Throughout this process, you can count on us (the City) to:

Keep you informed and involve you.

Design a waterfront park and village that you will love and be proud of.

Do our due diligence and safeguard the city’s finances.

What you can do:

You can help us make Lakepointe become a reality. For now, we need you to continue to be engaged. Review our Lakepointe web page (kenmorewa.gov/lakepointe), especially our Frequently Asked Questions. Sign up for email updates about Lakepointe. Attend future workshops. Watch for opportunities to join the discussion online. There’s much more to come, so stay tuned.

We don’t want this central part of our city to languish as a blighted industrial scar for the next decade or more. It’s finally time to transform Lakepointe into our long-held vision: A walkable urban village with a drop-dead gorgeous waterfront park that we can all enjoy and be proud of.

-- Mayor Nigel Herbig

A conceptual rendering of a Walkable Urban Village at Lakepointe