Category Archives: Regional

Appeal victory seminal moment for Sammamish Heritage Society

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The victory last week by the Sammamish Heritage Society in its appeal of an Issaquah decision to allow demolition of buildings at the Lutheran church property on the Providence Heights campus off 228th Ave. is a seminal moment for the group.

But it may be short-lived.

The Issaquah Hearing Examiner ruled that Issaquah “did not have the opportunity to adequately consider adverse impacts to a site designated as a landmark” by Issaquah’s own landmark commission before issuing the permit to demolish the church, which has significant stained glass windows.

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More study about new taxes or budget, service cuts for Sammamish

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The day before the State Legislature began to reveal a big property tax hike is coming for education, Sammamish City Council members met with staff in a retreat to examine City finances.

The Council met with staff Thursday afternoon and evening. The State began releasing information about its new budget, with tax hikes, on Friday.

Council Member Tom Odell, looking at the 2017 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) that identifies nearly $90m in spending through 2023 and up to $165m in future years, inclusive of the $90m, and declared officials need to examine all potential revenue sources to pay for these projects.

Translated, this means potential new taxes.

At the same time, Council Member Tom Hornish remains unconvinced that budget cuts aren’t impossible and if these are deep enough, funding the road projects could come out of operations and current revenues.

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Sammamish Transportation Plan balloons to $165m; Klahanie project now $45m

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The new Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan approved by the Sammamish City Council Tuesday boosts projects costs to $165.36m.

This figure includes the cost of the projects that start within the six-year TIP period but continue beyond into a date not specified.

Costs for the Issaquah-Fall City Road widening along the greater Klahanie area goes to $44.8m from an estimated $23m in the months leading up to the annexation vote to Sammamish in April 2014.

Last March, only three months ago, the cost was pegged at $36m.

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King County sues Sammamish again over Lake Trail

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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.

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Outraged, shocked, surprised about Sammamish cooking the books on concurrency? I’m not.

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  • The City Council meeting tonight at 6:30p will undoubtedly discuss the Mullor Study. The study may be accessed here.

Commentary

By Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton

The news yesterday that Sammamish has been using outdated traffic counts, mostly from 2012 but some from 2014 and none from 2016, to run its traffic concurrency tests for development applications is fundamentally cooking the books to approve projects.

I should be outraged, but I’m not.

I should be shocked, but I’m not.

I’m not even surprised.

It just goes to show you how far our city government and City Council declined over the years to become a mini-King County.

I reached this conclusion as far back as 2009. That was 10 years after Sammamish incorporated.

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