The Sammamish Town Center plan was about seven years in the making, controversial throughout. Then development was held up by the 2008 Great Recession. Ground was finally broken in 2015. The first store, Metropolitan Market, opened this year. And now the Town Center is again at the center of controversy over the building moratorium.
By Scott Hamilton
There has even been a call to revisit the plan.
Here’s why doing so is not a good idea and why the Town Center is needed.
By Scott Hamilton
Sammamish Comment will continue publishing past Dec. 31, but on a limited basis.
In August 2016, I announced that my wife and I moved to Bainbridge Island after 20 years in Sammamish and that I would continue publishing Sammamish Comment through 2017, at which time I intended to discontinue the effort.
Not being a resident of Sammamish any longer meant I was somewhat removed from events. Although I obviously remained in contact with established relationships, and created some new ones, being absent on a day-to-day basis made it challenging for what was already an endeavor that is pursued in my free time.
My work schedule, at a time when I should be retiring, has gone the other direction. I’m busier than ever and traveling more.
But events emerged that I just can’t give up serving the City I’ve been serving in one way or another since 1997, when I filed my first land use appeal, prior to incorporation.
Pam Stuart
Pam Stuart won a thumping victory for Sammamish City Council 
Position 7, sweeping all 61 precincts and adding almost 11 percentage points to her primary victory.
Stuart last August garnered 52.45% of the vote. She took 63.35% of the vote in last month’s general election.
Her opponent, John Robinson, recorded 30.46% of the vote in the primary. He picked up only 6.1 percentage points in the general election and under-performed his primary results in which he won four precincts. He didn’t win any in the general election.
Chris Ross
Chris Ross, the winner for Sammamish City Council Position 5 in the Nov. 
7 election, picked up less than 6 percentage points to add to his primary showing of 47%.
Ross won 52.7% of the vote in November.
Rituja Indapure, who won 31.6% of the primary vote, picked up 15.6 percentage points to finish the general election with 47.2% of the vote.
Ryika Hooshangi, the third candidate in the primary, won 21% of the vote. This broke mostly for Indapure.
Karen Moran
Karen Moran won over voters in the Nov. 7 general election who 
favored Minal Ghassemieh in the August primary for Sammamish City Council Position 3, a precinct analysis shows.
Moran led second place Karen Howe in the primary by just 72 votes and less than one-half percentage point. Ghassemieh trailed a close third. Only two percentage points separated Moran from Ghassemieh.
Howe and Ghassemieh share much of the same constituency in the primary: Democratic and labor union endorsements.
Sammamish Comment 