Tag Archives: Ramiro Valderrama

Sammamish delivers punch to King County over ELST

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July 5, 2016: Sammamish handed King County a strong left hook to the jaw tonight when the City Council voted to withdraw from a 12-year Inter-Local Agreement (ILA) section involving the East Lake Sammamish Trail (ELST).

Fed up with complaints from property owners and increasing tension between City and County officials over how the County has developed the trail, the City Council’s move to cancel the ILA means Sammamish now has complete control over approving Section 2B of the ELST.

Section 2B is the center section, from the 7-11 to Inglewood Hill Road. Section 1, north of Inglewood to the Redmond city limits, is complete. Section 2A development is under appeal to the Shoreline Hearings Board, which is now deliberating. A decision is expected this fall.

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Sammamish unprepared for disaster, says city consultant

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City_of_SammamishWhen it comes to disaster preparedness, Sammamish is unprepared.

This is the conclusion of a consultant hired by the City to assess its emergency management planning.

The results, first revealed to the City’s Public Safety Committee June 22, paints an alarming picture of just how unprepared City government is to handle a major disaster like an earthquake. The City also failed to comply with federal and state law to prepare plans. The City failed to join a King County regional planning effort in 2014—and still hasn’t.

The consultant, Gail Harris of GCH Disaster Solutions, painted a grim picture to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. The committee consists of Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama Council Members Tom Hornish and Christie Malchow, Deputy City Manager Jessi Bon and other City staff members. The police and fire departments are also members.

Among the findings:

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‘Toughest tree ordinance in the state’ is too little, too late

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Gerend 2

Sammamish Mayor Don Gerend.

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Sammamish Mayor Don Gerend told citizens Tuesday night that Sammamish now has the toughest tree ordinance in the State.

This may well be true. But it’s too little, too late.

The ordinance requires developers–and individuals–who are building to retain 35% of the trees on site, up from 25%. It also requires reforestation, though this could be elsewhere in the City, not on site.

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Citizens protest Conner-Jarvis tree removal

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Conner Jarvis Protest

Protesters objecting to tree removal for the Conner-Jarvis project.

Citizens lined up along Issaquah-Pine Lake Road at 40th Place, across from the Conner-Jarvis development, to protest the large removal of trees to make way for 115 homes.

The project, approved under the prior Sammamish tree retention ordinance requiring retention of 25% of the trees on site, nonetheless caused shock with the community when a stand of trees along Issaquah-Pine Lake Road disappeared.

The current tree retention ordinance, passed last year, requires 35% tree retention and reforestation. It was approved too late to have impact on Conner-Jarvis.

Only two City Council Members, Tom Hornish and Christie Malchow, appeared at the protest to lend their support.

Stacy Wollenberg Peters, one of the neighbors of Conner-Jarvis, unloaded on the City Council Tuesday night.

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Council tree huggers vote against motion intended to save trees

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City_of_SammamishJune 13, 2016: It was an odd vote: three of the most fervent tree huggers on the Sammamish City Council voted June 7 against a motion intended to save trees.

Kathy Huckabay, Tom Odell and Bob Keller opposed a motion by Council Member Tom Hornish to remove the East Lake Sammamish Trail exemption from language defining wetland buffers. Hornish said the language, which stopped buffers on the west side former railbed that is now the ELST, put trees on the east side at risk of removal if they were inside wetland buffers as defined throughout the rest of the City.

Code says buffers end at streets and, up until a 4-3 vote June 7, the rail bed. Hornish, joined by Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama and Member Christie Malchow, voted to extend the wetland buffers to the east side of the ELST, where applicable. Hornish said the result would be to save some trees on the east side of the trail.

None of the three dissenters explained their negative votes. Each asked some clarifying questions during the discussion of Hornish’s motion.

Discussion begins at the 3:40 hour mark in the nearly seven hour council meeting and ends at 4:07 in the meeting with the vote.

Keller later spoke with Sammamish Comment explain his vote. Odell did not respond to a request for comment.

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