By Miki Mullor
Editor
Sid Gupta initially asked to be appointed to the Sammamish City Council in 2022 despite having no documented work experience or higher education. Now, the councilmember is running to keep his seat, which he later won in a quiet election cycle in 2023, raising questions about how someone with no professional background came to hold public office.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Editor
The City of Sammamish is moving toward a plan that could more than double the size of its Town Center — from roughly 2,000 units to as many as 4,000 — but the path to that decision is raising questions of transparency and integrity.
Under Washington’s Growth Management Act, Sammamish is required to adopt growth targets for future housing. After initially setting a modest 700-unit target in 2021, the number was abruptly removed by the regional Growth Management Planning Council under disputed circumstances. The City Council later was forced to adopt a higher target of 2,007 units, of which only 560 were earmarked for the Town Center.
Despite this, city leaders are now advancing a proposal that would double the Town Center’s density, to 4,000 units.
Records obtained via Public Records Requests filed with Sammamish and King County show councilmembers held private meetings with the project’s developer, while a final vote was quietly scheduled for December 2025 — after local elections but before the new council takes office. Following public outcry, that vote date was quietly deleted from the city’s schedule without explanation. There is nothing to prevent the council from reestablishing a December vote, however.
The lack of transparency, coupled with inconsistent justifications, has left critics arguing that the Town Center expansion is less about meeting legal housing obligations and more about a tainted process.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
In 2019, Sammamish residents were assured that growth would be responsibly managed. The law was clear: Under Washington’s Growth Management Act, no development can move forward unless infrastructure keeps pace (“concurrent with development”) – aka “concurrency”.
Specifically, any road improvements used to pass a concurrency test must be funded and built within six years.
That safeguard was supposed to protect residents from exactly what Sammamish has been plagued for years: unchecked growth without the adequate infrastructure.
Yet, six years after STCA Phase 1 in the Town Center was approved based on the $54 million Sahalee way improvement project, that project has not been completed, as legally required. It has not even started.
This is not the first time the city approves development under the concurrency 6 years allowance, as concurrency tests failed over the years – this was just the most egregious example.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Commentary
The Sammamish City Council is facing an extraordinary moment in the life of our city.
On the table is a plan to double the number of housing units in the Town Center—from the current 2,000 to 4,000. This is by far the most consequential decision the city has faced since 2010, when the original Town Center plan was adopted.
Even more extraordinary is the timing: this decision is scheduled to occur just as four City Council seats—enough for a new majority—are up for election this November. If just three of those seats change hands and align with Councilmember Kent Treen, who opposes the Town Center 4000 plan, the plan could be blocked.
In theory, that means voters could decide the fate of Town Center 4000 simply by voting for council candidates. But the council has another option: place an advisory vote on the ballot. That would allow residents to vote directly on the plan and for their preferred candidates—regardless of the candidates’ individual positions on the issue.
It should be an easy decision.
Mayor Karen Howe, in a recent op-ed we published, expressed confidence that the public supports expanding the Town Center. If that’s the case, why is the sitting City Council unwilling to postpone the final vote on Town Center 4000 until January—after the election results are in?
Perhaps the mayor is not so sure that public support exists. And if the support isn’t there, moving forward would risk breaking public trust.
The timing set by the current city council to vote on Town Center 4000 certainly suggests they doubt the purported support is there. They plan to vote on approval of this policy in December–after the November election and before the new city council is seated in January. Therefore, if three current council members who support this policy are defeated in November, they still get to lock in the new project before opponents take office.
The timing appears intended to be a slap in the face to residents and to the taxpayers who must subsidize the growth that comes with Town Center 4000.
Continue readingBy Karen Howe
Mayor, City of Sammamish
Over three years ago, three of us were voted into office on a platform that included support for Town Center, more housing choices, and affordability. The election in 2023 shows three council-members getting 53%, 58%, and 59% of the vote with the same basic platform.
A consistent theme I’ve read in much of the feedback is that folks are good with the idea of a town center and adding social retail and more housing options – both market rate and more affordable. They struggle with the number 4000 and I understand that. So how do we get to a Town Center plan that people can related to.
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Sammamish Comment 