Tag Archives: East Lake Sammamish Trail

The Greenies fight back: the 2001 Sammamish City Council election

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After being routed in the 1999 City Council elections and licking their wounds for the better part of two years, the environmentalists in Sammamish—the “greenies—“ began a comeback.

All seven Council seats were up for election in 2001. This was because that as a new city, two- and four-year terms had to be established. The largest vote-getters in 2001 would get four year terms. The three lowest vote getters would get two year terms.

As it happened, only three Council members were challenged by people backed by the Greenies, and by SHOUT officials (see the post of March 28 to understand who SHOUT was): Ron Haworth, Ken Kilroy and Phil Dyer. Don Gerend, Kathy Huckabay, Jack Barry and Troy Romero were unopposed. By default, they would receive the most votes and four year terms.

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Sammamish, the first two years

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The new City’s logo was adopted from a combination of entries from school children in a contest.

After the first City Council election for the new Sammamish, the task of creating a new city was enormous.

The City Council had to select its leadership and committees for key “needs,” such as transportation. Ordinances had to be created. Contracts for essential services had to be negotiated. An interim City Manager and staff had to be hired. Eventually a Comprehensive Plan would have to be written. A temporary City Hall had to be located, no small task in a community with no business complexes. A place to hold City Council meetings had to be identified.

And these are just some of the priority issues.

One of the top issues, the reason for incorporating in the first place, was to put a halt to the runaway development.

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County appeals Trail decision, claims Examiner didn’t have jurisdiction

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March 15, 2016: Despite telling local press that it would not appeal a Sammamish Hearing Examiner’s decision on the East Lake Sammamish Trail development–a decision in which the County largely prevailed over staff-imposed conditions for the permit–the County filed an appeal with the State Shoreline Hearings Board.

The City previously filed an appeal over two decisions by the Hearing Examiner, which favored the County.

The full County appeal is here: KC Appeal ELST to State. Including the original Examiner’s decision, the PDF document is 88 pages.

Essentially, the County is asking the State Hearings Board to find not only did the Examiner not have jurisdiction, it’s also asking that all conditions imposed by the Staff be voided, just as it did when it appealed to the Hearing Examiner in the first place. (The Examiner had denied a motion from the City over his jurisdiction in the matter, thus last December’s full hearing. The County essentially seeks to relitigate the entire matter before the State.)

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Breaking news: Examiner denies SHO appeal on ELST; Gives split decision on County appeal

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The Sammamish Hearing Examiner denied the appeal by the Sammamish Homeowners over the City’s granting of a permit for development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

The Examiner granted some of the appeal issues filed by King County over a host of conditions the City set, but denied others. Still others were settled in negotiations between the City and the County, the most important providing for the preservation of far more trees than the County originally was proposing.

A third homeowners’ appeal was settled between the County and the appellants.

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Looking ahead to 2016 in Sammamish

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Sammamish Comment LogoShortly after the Nov. 3 election, Sammamish Comment identified issues that face the City Council this year. These include:

  • Fully assimilating the Klahanie annexation area into Sammamish.
  • The Sahalee Way road project. The City Staff hasn’t clearly made its case to many residents, or some on the Council, why this project is needed and what it should look like.
  • Appointments to the City commissions.
  • Setting priorities for the year. This should happen at the annual retreat, Jan. 14-16. The retreat begins at 5pm on the 14th and continues to noon on the 16th. It’s at the Murano Hotel in Tacoma.
  • Holding staff accountable to its own codes.
  • Resolution of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

The full post, with details on these, may be found here.

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