Daily Archives: December 11, 2012

Council directs Staff to proceed toward agreement with Ace

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The Sammamish City Council tonight on a 7-0 vote directed Staff to proceed toward crafting a Development Agreement and, if necessary, an emergency ordinance to clear the way for Ace Hardware to relocate to land immediately south of the Starbucks and bank at NE 4th St.

The agreement and ordinance is targeted to be presented to the City Council on January 8. A public hearing will be required and there are a whole host of issues that have to fall into place.

This is not a done deal by any stretch, but progress is being made and the Council effectively overruled the Dec. 4 Staff conclusion that it was too late to do anything.

I want to emphasize, however, that the Administration, Staff and Council have worked for a year to try and find a solution for Ace. For those who may have seen the movie Argo (a very good movie, by the way, even if over-dramatized at the end), there was a line in it that said “This is the best bad decision” we have. This property where Ace wants to relocate falls in this category. It’s a lousy choice to build on because of all the environmental constraints. But it’s the best bad decision left to Ace and to the City.

Ace has become a city institution. When scores of people appeared before the Sammamish City Council Dec. 4 to support Ace Hardware, many people spoke of the employees as family and the store as a key, integral part of the community.

I could not help but think of Floyd’s Barber Shop in the Andy Griffith Show.

With luck and dedication, we may see the City and the Ace principals make it work.

 

City to small business: not a word about you

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There is absolutely no sense of urgency or problem-solving for locally owned, small businesses in the City Council packet going to the Council tonight.

It’s as if small businesses, other than Ace Hardware, do not exist in the City’s mindset. These are left to the whim of Regency, the absentee landlord who has made it clear our locally owned small businesses can go to hell.

Despite the loss of several small businesses at the Sammamish Highlands center, and the doomsday countdown for Civilized Nature now started, there is nothing in the council packet to suggest the Administration is looking for solutions and alternatives to help small business.

I find this lack of foresight to be appalling. The Administration last week pretty much said everything can wait to the 2015 Comp Plan rewrite, three years away. Implementation of a rewrite would not happen until the following year, four years away. This leaves small businesses entirely at the mercy of Regency.

Our City Council must step in and fix this. But will it? It’s hardly shown much foresight, either.

Staff recommends more time on Ace, to January

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The Sammamish staff will recommend to the City Council tonight that action on the Ace Hardware development plan be deferred to January.

In the Council packet in advance of tonight’s meeting, Staff writes,

“Continue to work with the applicant team and report back to the City Council in January, 2013 with options to consider the request.”

With respect to the Docket Request by landowners for the SE Quadrant, the Staff recommends to the Council:

“Address the items included in the proponent’s submittal in the upcoming Economic Development Strategic Plan process which will develop specific steps to catalyze implementation of the Town Center Plan. These steps may include programmatic efforts, infrastructure plans, and amendments to the Town Center Plan and associated development regulations.”

I’m unclear if this is adequate or whether the Planning Commission needs to be involved. We’ll have to wait and see what Staff says at the Council meeting tonight.