King County filed a new lawsuit June 14 against Sammamish over the long-running legal battle over development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.
This time, it’s over Sammamish’s threat to block construction at two trail/road intersections in the Southern portion of the trail that is now under construction.
Sammamish wants stop signs installed for the trail users. The County wants stop signs installed for the vehicular traffic.
Mike Mullor
Update, June 6: The City Council meets tonight and this topic will come up. The meeting begins at 6:30pm at City Hall; Public Comment is scheduled about 7:25pm. Mullor’s study may be accessed here.
Original post, June 5:
Sammamish manipulated its traffic concurrency code to allow new development despite daily vehicle counts exceeding the thresholds for pass-fail standards, a study shows.
The City uses traffic count data it has to apply for concurrency testing. Most of the data is from 2012. Some 2014 data is used. No 2016 data is used, according to the study. Using 2014 data on key roads where 2012 data is used would have failed some concurrency testing and denied the applications for development, the study shows.
Click on all images to enlarge. Source: Miki Mullor Concurrency Study.
Miki Mullor, a Sammamish resident, used Public Records Request (PRR) to obtain 2014 traffic count data that the City has but does not generally use in its concurrency testing.
Wally Pereyra, gearing up for a new land use appeal over development affecting Ebright Creek.
A tiny, two-home short plat is at the heart of what’s likely to be another appeal to protect environmentally sensitive Ebright Creek.
The Sammamish City Staff Monday approved development “to subdivide one parcel comprising approximately 2.97 acres into two single-family residential lots. The site is located to the east of Ebright Creek, west of the Greenbriar subdivision. The site is constrained by the buffer of a Type F stream (Ebright Creek) and landslide hazard area buffers.”
The applicants, Clifford and Pauline Cantor, first filed for development 16 years ago.
King County Parks has analyzed all the reported conflicts in East Lake Sammamish Trail (ELST) Section 2B and is working on solutions, King County Council Member Kathy Lambert tells Sammamish Comment.
In an interview March 16, Lambert said the County Parks department created a large book
King County Council Member Kathy Lambert.
with the details of the conflicts presented by property owners along 2B, the final section of ELST to be developed into a paved walking/jogging/bike trail.
Section 2B runs north from the 7-11 on East Lake Sammamish Parkway in Sammamish to Inglewood Hill Road. Construction on Section 2A, south of the 7-11 to the Issaquah city limits, is now underway. Section 1, north from Inglewood Hill to the Redmond city limits, is done.
Section 2B has unique conflicts from home development dating to King County’s rule before Sammamish was incorporated and before the County acquired the right-of-way from Burlington Northern Rail Road, which discontinued using it.
There are also some challenging topographical and environmental issues.
Little tangible progress appeared to be the result of a staff-to-staff meeting two weeks ago between King County Parks and Sammamish over the interminable controversy of development of the final segment of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.
But City Manager Lyman Howard is hopeful some progress can be made.
“I think so,” he said in an interview with Sammamish Comment this week. County officials said they want to work with the City and property owners—statements that have been made before, only to be met with unsatisfactory results.
Howard, ever hopeful and acknowledging past disappointments, nonetheless isn’t throwing in the towel.
Sammamish Comment 