Tag Archives: Miki Mullor

Council returns Sept. 5 to take up traffic, concurrency

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  • This is six pages when printed.

Lyman Howard. Source: Google images.

The Sammamish City Council returns Sept. 5 from its August recess with traffic and concurrency the No. 1 priority and the No. 1 item on the agenda.

City Manager Lyman Howard will present a proposal to establish a “roadmap” going forward to take a top-to-bottom look at how the City implements traffic concurrency policies and testing that are required before development can be approved.

Controversial study prompts review

The review is the outgrowth of a controversial study by a Sammamish citizen, Miki Mullor, who concluded the City Staff had manipulated data to approve development. After a de facto moratorium brought on by the 2008 Global Recession, an improving economy and capital liquidity enabled a major spurt of growth that saw wholesale tree removal and increased traffic congestion over a few years beginning about 2014.

Mullor’s study contained incendiary charges that prompted Howard to label it “inaccurate” and “deeply offensive” at the June 6 Council meeting, the day after Mullor emailed the study to the City. Howard suggested later at the same meeting that Staff would answer questions raised by the study and from the Council.

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The inside story of how traffic and concurrency became “the No. 1 issue in Sammamish:” failure, success of government

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Update, July 25, 2017: The reporter for the Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter has been transferred to sister papers in the Bothell-Kenmore area.

A Special Report

This is seven pages when printed.

By Scott Hamilton

Analysis

Traffic and concurrency in Sammamish is a classic example of failure, and success, in government. It’s a glaring failure of the local newspaper.

It’s a success story of how a single citizen forced debate on an issue that even determined City Council members could not.

Here is the back-story of how traffic and concurrency became “the No. 1 priority in Sammamish.” A sequential history is necessary before we get to the punch line.

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City Council, in rebuke of Administration, staff, consultants, votes in-depth review of traffic

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  • “This is the No. 1 priority of Sammamish citizens.”–Tom Hornish.
  • City’s road program has been to “urbanize” streets, not ease congestion.
  • Administration attempted to discredit Mullor study.
  • Mullor credited with starting important conversation by Council Members.

In what can only be regarded as a searing rebuke of the City Manager, City Staff and outside transportation consultants, the Sammamish City Council voted 6-1 July 18 to pursue an in-depth review of transportation policies.

The Council also agreed to have discussions at every Council meeting in the foreseeable future.

Mayor Bob Keller was the dissenting vote.

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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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More questions posed in Sammamish concurrency kerfuffle

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Miki Mullor

More questions about Sammamish’s method of applying traffic concurrency by the citizen who understood a controversial study last month.

Miki Mullor sent a new round of questions to the City Council and City Administration on July 4. (See the Power Point program here.) He submitted the questions in advance of a scheduled July 10 meeting at which the City Council is to get a detailed briefing from staff about concurrency and how Sammamish measures traffic in approving development.

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