Category Archives: City Politics

Sammamish’s first Comprehensive Plan

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City_of_SammamishPart 1: When Sammamish became a city in 1999, one of the tasks required by State law that had to be accomplished was the writing and adoption of a Comprehensive Plan.

This is the guiding document for cities and counties in Washington. It sets policies on everything ranging from the environment to development to transportation to parks, from utilities to zoning and job and growth targets.

Under State law, there are specific legal meanings to specific words. Three of these words were important in the creation of Sammamish’s Comp Plan: “may,” “should” and “shall.”

Simplistically, “may” means the City has the clear option of doing something, or not. “Should” means the City ought to do something unless there is a good reason not to. “Shall” leaves the City no choice (in theory): it must do something.

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Council tree huggers vote against motion intended to save trees

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City_of_SammamishJune 13, 2016: It was an odd vote: three of the most fervent tree huggers on the Sammamish City Council voted June 7 against a motion intended to save trees.

Kathy Huckabay, Tom Odell and Bob Keller opposed a motion by Council Member Tom Hornish to remove the East Lake Sammamish Trail exemption from language defining wetland buffers. Hornish said the language, which stopped buffers on the west side former railbed that is now the ELST, put trees on the east side at risk of removal if they were inside wetland buffers as defined throughout the rest of the City.

Code says buffers end at streets and, up until a 4-3 vote June 7, the rail bed. Hornish, joined by Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama and Member Christie Malchow, voted to extend the wetland buffers to the east side of the ELST, where applicable. Hornish said the result would be to save some trees on the east side of the trail.

None of the three dissenters explained their negative votes. Each asked some clarifying questions during the discussion of Hornish’s motion.

Discussion begins at the 3:40 hour mark in the nearly seven hour council meeting and ends at 4:07 in the meeting with the vote.

Keller later spoke with Sammamish Comment explain his vote. Odell did not respond to a request for comment.

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City Council gets earful over preference for Issaquah-Fall City Road improvement

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June 11, 2016: The Sammamish City Council got an earful from a resident about a six year wait to improve Duthie Hill Road on the City’s Northeast side.

“I don’t think you are hearing my level of frustration,” said Robert Nielson, 2311 277th Ave. SE, following an explanation by Council Member Tom Odell about efforts to reach an agreement with King County that would allow Sammamish to take over County-owned portions of Duthie Hill Road.

“We were told this six years ago when we were annexed into the City. In six years, nothing has happened. So why should I believe you now?”

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Lake Trail overhangs Sammamish politics for 20 years

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  • This is about 10 pages when printed.

City_of_SammamishJune 5, 2016: Development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail has been an overhang of Sammamish politics for 20 years.

It was a dominate factor in the first City Council race 1999 and surfaced again in 2001. It became a key issue in the 2003 election, with a flood of “outside” money flowing to candidates favoring the Trail.

The issue surfaced periodically in subsequent elections. It wasn’t until 2015 that once more it became a key election issue, as Trail residents rallied behind three candidates to win bitterly contested races. For the first time, they helped elect a resident who lives along the Trail.

And the issue hasn’t subsided, either.

In April, three Council Members voted to undercut the City’s own Hearing Examiner and side with King County, developer of the Trail, on a jurisdictional issue in an appeal before the State Shoreline Hearings Board.

This is the story behind the 20-year battle of the ELST.

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Senior staff exodus at Sammamish

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City_of_SammamishAnother long-time staff member has resigned from the City of Sammamish.

Evan Maxim, a senior planner, quit to go to work for the City of Mercer Island. He follows recent resignations of Mona Davis and Laura Philpot in the last year, all senior staffers in planning or public works. Davis went to work for Renton. Philpot now works at Maple Valley.

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