The March 12 issue of The Sammamish Reporter has a long article about cell towers called Selling our Skyline. While the headline is hyperbole–Sammamish is hardly “selling the skyline–” the article does a good job of explaining the issues.
Unfortunately, Sammamish previously had opportunities to deal more effectively with this issue and frankly, the City blew it.
The City of Sammamish has the ability to provide financial support to developers to kick-start the Town Center (see following post). And there is a way to do so in a partnership, not an up-front gamble in today’s dicey marketplace.
The City’s current newsletter discusses the conservative approach taken by the City which avoided fronting infrastructure costs or land purchases for developers that would have stuck taxpayers with the burden following the September 2008 financial market meltdown and resulting global recession.
One of the issues facing the City Council as it begins its review of the regulations for the Town Center is whether to help finance elements of it to kick-start development.
This issue is not part of the Planning Commission’s regulations recommendations that will be under review beginning March 15 (see following post); this issue was deemed by the Commission to be beyond its scope of work.
As a former member of the Commission, and a long-time activist regarding land use and traffic issues, I was of the opinion going into the Town Center regulations process in early 2008 that the City should not contribute to financing TC stuff–this should fall to the responsibility of the developers under the “growth pays its own way” theory.
The City Council will begin reviewing the regulations recommended by the Planning Commission for the Town Center at its meeting Monday, March 15. This is a study session, so it will not be televised or recorded for subsequent posting on the City’s website. (The policy of not televising study sessions is a poor one, but this might be a topic for another time.)
The regulations include design guidelines, storm water control, setbacks, sign codes, building heights, parking requirements, permitted uses, buffer requirements, affordable housing and more. The Staff proposes an ambitious schedule to complete Council review by the end of June, after which applications can be accepted to begin development.
The regulations are fairly prescriptive and very detailed and some of them will generate controversy, such as the requirements for parking structures and affordable housing.
As the Sammamish City Council proceeds with its review of the regulatory recommendations from the Planning Commission for the Town Center, the debate at the February 16 Council meeting included discussion about a sub-area plan for the Pine Lake (QFC) Center.
Council Members Mark Cross, John Curley, Tom Odell and Michele Petitti spoke in favor of sub-area planning for Pine Lake as the preferred next-step rather than re-opening the Town Center Plan to accommodate a Docket Request by some landowners of the SE Quadrant to triple the commercial development in their quadrant and increase residential density by a third.
The four council members saw the merits in exploring creation of a transit-oriented development over the park-and-ride (“A” in the photo below the fold) at Pine Lake as well as the prospect for redevelopment.
Sammamish Comment 