Advisory election for Sammamish Community Center is a dumb idea

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The idea of having a “non-binding advisory vote” for the Sammamish Community Center is unnecessary and a waste of time and money.

The City Staff and City Council have studied this thing to death. There have been numerous public meetings. Money and time has been spent on professional consultants. Let’s get on with the decision-making. We elect the City Council to make decisions and policy. We don’t need more stalling and needless expense.

If the Council insists on having a vote, at whatever is the cost of doing so, make it mean something by having it binding. Having a non-binding advisory vote is just silly. We already have a Park Commission whose opinions and recommendations are often ignored by City Council. Having a non-binding advisory vote means the prospect is very real that the Council will simply ignore the voters and do what it wants anyway. Save the time and money: show some political courage and backbone and get on with a decision now.

Common sense on the Community Center

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It appears that common sense may prevail on the proposed Sammamish Community Center.

That’s the project, readers will recall, that last year was headed toward a $64m, 98,000sf extravaganza that would have been the biggest city community center in King County, according to some.

It would have been roughly 2 1/2 times the size of our City Hall at roughly seven times the cost of the building.

Note that now City officials are putting the price tag of City Hall at around $28m, “including land costs.” I think this is somewhat misleading, but I won’t argue the point.

We already own the land on which the Community Center will be built, the so-called Kellman property. This was purchased not so much with a Community Center in mind; affordable housing was one preferred use, a folly–but that’s another story. So the original Community Center concept at $64m was breath-taking. It got a lot of justifiable push-back from the public and some council members who were fiscally alert and not interested in a Taj Mahal. The City was also charging ahead alone rather than partnering with a private entity well-versed in operating community centers.

According to this article in the Sammamish Review, the City is now talking with the YMCA about a sharply scaled down project that is priced at $29m for a 64,000sf building (the City Hall is just over 39,000sf). Further, Council Member Nancy Whitten thinks the YMCA should deed over the property it owns near the Pine Lake Middle School as part of the deal–an idea I think has great merit.

Kudos to the City for coming around to considering a solution that wasn’t even on the table.

That’s not tobacco they’re smoking at the City Council

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I was known as a tree-hugging environmentalist (among other things) during my 8 1/2 years of service on Sammamish committees and commissions but that doesn’t prevent me from saying the City Council is smoking something other than tobacco with the proposal to ban smoking in City Parks.

Despite some snide comments toward John Curley by one City Councilman and some Sammamish Review readers, I agree with him: the idea that second-hand smoke in an open-air park is hazardous (at least in the levels we’re talking about here) strikes me as pretty ludicrous.

I don’t like cigarette smoke; it’s obnoxious and has an odor that is particularly offensive to my sensitivities. But any time I go to the Sammamish Commons (for example) for the Fourth of July or Farmer’s Markets, if someone is smoking nearby, I can easily move upwind. In this case, I have to say smokers have their rights, too.

I think Washington’s smoking ban in buildings went too far. I am all for banning smoking in open areas within buildings (offices, restaurants, bars, etc.) or places like Safeco Field or the Clink (Century Link stadium), but I also believe that exceptions should have been allowed: a fully enclosed smoking area or provisions for “smoking clubs” would have been acceptable.

Sammamish has better things to do than pursuing this nanny state ordinance.

Sammamish remains in 8th in Congressional remap; moves to 41st, 45th in State redistricting

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The political remap of Washington State, which occurs every 10 years, means major changes for Sammamish.

The City remains in the 8th Congressional District (Dave Reichert), which now extends across the mountains to Chelan and Kittitas counties (and making it a safe Republican district). The big change is in the Legislative Districts.

The City has been part of the 5th Legislative and 45th Legislative districts since before I’ve lived here (1996), primarily the 5th. Now, Sammamish will be in the 45th and 41st.

Here is a PDF of the map, which isn’t too precise. The darn thing doesn’t even show Lake Sammamish. Zoom in to 400% to make it readable.

This Google Earth overlay works better.

Continue reading →

Update on Ace Hardware

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Regency continues to ignore Ace Hardware and efforts to extend its lease, according to reliable information.

Meantime, other tenants in the Sammamish Highlands (Safeway) complex fear that they are next on the Regency hit list. Tenants in the Pine Lake Center (QFC complex) ought to be worried, too.

Ace’s owner, Tim Koch, continues to seek a solution, including buying land and building, but with a lease termination in September 2012, doing a new-build means almost certainly Ace will close unless Regency extends the lease for at least a year.

City Staff is trying to find a solution for Ace as well.

Koch faces a greater challenge: if he wants to buy-and-build, the cost of doing so may be tough. However, I think that if other Regency tenants, with solid reason to fear for their future, combine with Koch, maybe there is a business case to present to Sammamish citizens to invest in a commercial structure that can lease space to the “Regency refugees.”

Residents in Pt Townsend did something similar when the city’s only general store closed. Residents invested in a new business (I do not know the business structure) to reopen a general store.

It is time for creative thinking and solutions.