Housing Affordability

The price of housing affects the price of everything else. When home prices are high, mortgage payments and rent are high. Those are the main contributor to cost of living. 1 And the cost of living determines the cost of labor, which essentially determines the price of everything else.2

When more housing is available, the price of housing goes down.3 Kirkland cannot expand outward anymore, so the only way to add housing is to go up or between. That means density increases. Increases to housing density increase the supply of housing, making it more affordable. That makes the city more affordable, which benefits everyone, including people who already own homes.

Environmentalism

Single-family suburbs are the worst housing type for the environment.4 They often have non-native plants and grass, and pave over large portions of nature with driveways and wide suburban streets designed for street parking.5 Single-family suburbs can feel more "natural" than dense ones because they give every homeowner a little bit of nature. However, this discontiguous arrangement is not suitable for most wildlife6 and means that while everyone has a little bit of nature, nobody has a lot.

When housing is built densely, more space can be left for large, continuous parks that offer true seclusion and support wildlife.7 These parks also offer safe, quiet places away from cars for adults and children to play and socialize. We already have many nice parks in Kirkland. With density everywhere, we could make them larger and have more of them.

Taxes

Single-family suburbs are extremely expensive for a city to support on a per-unit basis.8 Utility companies need more poles, internet companies need more underground cables, maintenance crews need to maintain and fix more roads. The money to cover this great expense is coming from your property tax and sales taxes.

With more density, the costs do not increase much9 but the number of people paying for them does. This means the city can lower taxes, or offer more and better services. Roads can be fixed more often. Sidewalks can be kept cleaner. Bigger, more ambitious infrastructure projects can be paid for without raising taxes. Existing projects can be completed faster.10

Local Business

When everyone lives far away, local business has a hard time competing with big name stores that can spend more on advertising.11 They also have access to fewer customers. With commercial zoning restricted to specific areas, there are relatively few slots for businesses to fill in the city. Even fewer when accounting for places that a consumer is likely to actually visit.12 With higher density and mixed zoning, many more commercial locations become available and it makes fertile ground for small, local businesses to thrive.13

Elderly & Disabled People

Some people cannot drive themselves. They have to rely on public transit or friends and family to go anywhere. It doesn't have to be that way. With dense neighborhoods and mixed zoning, essentials can be available within walking distance, allowing the elderly and people with disabilities to live independently when they couldn't before.14

I Don't Think [My Area] Can Handle A Business

If you have concerns about a specific project in your neighborhood, there is already a mandatory notice-and-comment process. Upzoning Kirkland does not mean eliminating this process. It only removes the blanket ban on density in the city. After upzoning, individual projects would remain under the scrutiny of the city council and the affected neighborhoods.

I'm Worried We'll Get Nonsensical Projects

The city does not fund property developers, and still approves individual projects. A property developer would not put a skyscraper in your suburb, or anywhere that didn't have the supporting infrastructure, because that would be a poor use of money.15 And the notice-and-comment protections will still prevent this situation from happening even if such an insane property developer existed.

Construction Is Annoying

This is an entirely valid point. I've lived within earshot of an active construction site for the past five years. I understand how much it sucks. However, the alternative to construction is decay. 16

My House Is My Retirement

This is a fair concern. If your financial security depends on your house, it's normal to feel very defensive of anything that might change the value of your house. However, it's unlikely that upzoning Kirkland would negatively affect anyone's property values. It would most likely make property values for single family homes increase.17

Density Causes Crime

The evidence suggests that housing density is not correlated with crime.18 However, it might seem like density is associated with crime because density is usually only allowed in low-income areas.19 Kirkland has multiple compelling counter-examples, however. Downtown and Totem Lake both have substantially increased density and have no significant crime problem. These are high-income, safe neighborhoods that are also walkable and dense.

Density Causes Noise

The main source of noise in Kirkland is cars, not people.20 Increasing density may increase the number of cars, however this will be partially offset by the higher density making cars less necessary.21 In addition, some of the densest cities in the world, like Amsterdam, are also the quietest.22

I Don't Want My Neighborhood To Change

This is understandable. If you've lived here a long time, you probably feel attached to the way things are, and don't see much point in risking something new. I don't have a counterargument to this, because it is entirely up to your personal feelings. However, I will suggest that trying to preserve the city exactly how it is today ultimately harms future generations who can no longer afford to live here. If you have kids and you'd like for them to be able to live nearby someday, you should support density.

Density Hurts The Environment

Upzoning does not mean Kirkland turns into Manhattan overnight. As outlined above, density provides more opportunities for parks and large natural areas that are far more beneficial to the environment than what we have now.4567 And less dependence on cars will also reduce pollution from tire rubber, which now constitutes over half of all microplastics in the water.23

Density Causes Traffic Congestion

Traffic congestion is only really an issue when everyone drives.24 The city of Kirkland already has a very high-capacity and under-utilized bus service that could easily accommodate many more passengers without even needing to add more buses.25 Dense neighborhoods are much more transit-friendly and can lead to even better service that even more people use, resulting in fewer people in cars.

The most congested roads in King County are not city streets in dense neighborhoods. They're the arterial roads and freeways that connect car-dependent single-family suburbs to the city centers.26

Density Is Bad For Children

Parenting is highly subjective and everyone has their own opinions about what is and is not right for children. However, children cannot drive.citation needed That means if they live in a car-dependent single-family suburb, they're essentially trapped at home unless a parent can shuttle them around.27The potential for larger parks, as mentioned above, also provides much better and safer space for children to play. And dense, walkable neighborhoods allow children to learn valuable lessons about independence and responsibility at a younger age, instead of their first grocery store run having to wait until they're 16.

I Don't Want To Give Up My Car

You don't have to. Even without zoning restrictions, property developers have to give people what they want.28 And if what they want is single family houses with garages and driveways, that is what they'll build. Upzoning Kirkland doesn't mean you have to give up your car. It doesn't mean apartments on every corner. It just means allowing Kirkland to build more than one type of neighborhood.

My City Should Not Be An Experiment

Density increases and mixed zoning are not a new or unproven idea.29 This is a thoroughly-studied concept that has been tried in many cities30 and countries31 around the world32 with universal success33. Growing a city is not easy, and it matters how you do it. But blanket bans on density and commercial development means giving up on the problem and leaving many neighborhoods behind. It's time to agree on growth, everywhere, and upzone Kirkland. Then we can debate how exactly we want that growth to look.