By Miki Mullor
Editor
A moratorium on development is coming to Northern Sammamish, unless King County commits to fund short- and long-term improvement to the sewage infrastructure.
A moratorium on sewer connections will impact not only future development but also permitted development that has not yet been connected to sewer.
In December, we reported that the Sammamish Water and Sewer district is out of capacity to handle sewer for development on an irregular line roughly north of SE 8th St., including the Town Center development site.
50 years of county inaction
In a January 5 email to Constantine, Water Board President Ryika Hooshangi reminded the county that for 50 years, the Sammamish Water District relied upon the planned construction of a new regional pipeline to convey sewage from the northern part of its service area in Sammamish (pink areas on the map below).
“In 2018, much to our dismay, the District discovered that construction of the SPD [pipeline] project would now be postponed for nearly 20 years, as it has been reclassified from “high priority” to “low priority.”[I]t severely undermines our ability to serve our rapidly growing customer base,” wrote Hooshangi.
The District wants a binding commitment from the county’s decision-makers to authorize and fund both short- and long-term improvements to meet the District’s regional needs.
“Without such commitments, the District will be unable to sustain current and planned development in Sammamish and may be forced to implement a moratorium on sewer connections,” warned Hooshanghi. “We are unaware of any other agencies served by the county that have been put in such a position due to the lack of regional sewer conveyance [pipeline] infrastructure.“
Sources told the Sammamish Comment that a moratorium on sewer connections will impact the Town Center development, including the pending permit 400 homes STCA Phase 1.
The letter is on the Water District’s board agenda for its Jan. 11 meeting.
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Hi Miki –
Glad to see this.
One thing – you need to include Ryika’s first name and position title in the third paragraph.
Tom
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Thank you. Fixed.
This is not the only problem! Just take a minute and look what future developments will bring: a) higher taxes, b) traffic problems, c) environmental issues , just to name a few. Look at the Council, does anyone of them have the background to make sound decisions that benefits Sammamish? We Do not even have a post office! Have a great day!
Sent from my iPhone
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Oh, NO one saw this coming…Sure glad the developers are stepping up to cover mitigation cost impacts for their Project$$$. {sigh}