Tag Archives: City Council

City Council Candidates Forum Monday 6pm

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The only candidates forum for the Nov. 7 Sammamish City Council election will be Monday, Sept. 25, at City Hall. Details may be found here. Ballots are mailed to voters Oct. 18.

The forum runs from 6pm-8:30pm. Sammamish Comment will be at the forum and provide coverage either that evening or the next day.

The City will tape the forum for broadcast within a few days on Comcast Channel 21 and the City’s website/YouTube channel.

Four Council positions are up for election: 1, 3, 5 and 7. For the first time since 1999, there are no incumbents for these positions. The candidates are (in the order they appear on the ballot):

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GMA nuanced in development control, says City staff

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  • The special study session on Sammamish transportation concurrency and traffic issues continues at the City Council meeting today. This begins at a special time, 4:30pm, to about 6:30pm. It will be televised by Comcast 21 and webcast on the City website.

The Growth Management Act doesn’t exactly mandate development, as Sammamish officials often said, a special study session last night on traffic and transportation concurrency revealed last night.

Instead, the GMA gives cities and countries some options to respond to growth.

The deep-dive into how Sammamish developed and uses its currency system continues tonight in a special time, 4:30pm, at a City Council meeting that will be webcast and televised on Comcast 21.

The special meetings were prompted by a study by a Sammamish citizen, Miki Mullor, who concluded Sammamish manipulated concurrency to approve development.

He claimed the GMA allows cities to stop development if concurrency fails.

Not entirely so, the City Council was told last night.

And, yes, through policy decisions from a succession of City Councils, the Staff crafted concurrency that approves development—but the rationale is far more complex than the black-and-white reasons claimed by Mullor.

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Sammamish’s trek to court over Land Use Appeals, other issues; cost to taxpayers stonewalled

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The City of Sammamish has gone to court 28 times in the last 10 years on matters other than routine operational reasons. Half were for Land Use Petition (development) (LUP) appeals from Hearing Examiner decisions, a review of court records reveals.

In addition, the City wound up in Court over development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail for what’s called an Administrative Law Review, three times over Public Records and twice by parties seeking injunctions against the City.

The City also is a defendant in a damages lawsuit by developer William Buchan, which is also the plaintiff in one of the LUPs. Both are for the proposed development of Chestnut Estates West, west of 212th Ave. SE and SE 8th St.

The review of records in King County Superior Court this week revealed numerous other court actions relating to City requests to condemn land (usually for road rights of way) and Quit Claim deeds. These are routine cases related to the normal operation of the City.

The court cases do not include recent actions before the state Shorelines Hearing Board on appeals by King County and the Sammamish Homeowners group over a Hearing Examiner’s decision regarding development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

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Precinct-by-precinct analysis of Sammamish City Council election

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A precinct-by-precinct analysis of the Nov. 3 Sammamish City Council election demonstrates that development concerns and a muffed plan for the Sahalee Way road projects helped lead the way to victory for Christie Malchow and Tom Hornish over Mark Cross and Tom Vance.

Ramiro Valderrama faced only token opposition, and therefore Sammamish Comment hasn’t spent a lot of time analyzing his race against Hank Klein. Klein dropped out of the race too late to take his name off the ballot. He didn’t campaign or raise money.

Here’s what The Comment’s analysis found:

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City revises Sahalee Way timeline to ensure public role

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Sammamish officials last night reversed course on the timeline for approving the contract for the Sahalee Way road project, followed by public input, and put the cart behind the horse instead of in front.

Additionally, Staff effectively threw out the City Council action October 6, when the Final Work Scope for the $15m project was approved on a 4-2 vote and said it will start from scratch with the design.

Sammamish Comment detailed the controversy and timeline surrounding the project yesterday morning.

The public meeting announced October 6, set for November 4, remains. The plan to have the City Council approve the contract for the consultant Perteet was set for November 3. This has been rescheduled to December 1. A new Council review meeting was set for November 10, by which time Staff will assimilate public comment from the November 4 meeting, which will be 7p-9p at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center.

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