Tag Archives: Sammamish Comment

Lake Trail overhangs Sammamish politics for 20 years

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  • This is about 10 pages when printed.

City_of_SammamishJune 5, 2016: Development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail has been an overhang of Sammamish politics for 20 years.

It was a dominate factor in the first City Council race 1999 and surfaced again in 2001. It became a key issue in the 2003 election, with a flood of “outside” money flowing to candidates favoring the Trail.

The issue surfaced periodically in subsequent elections. It wasn’t until 2015 that once more it became a key election issue, as Trail residents rallied behind three candidates to win bitterly contested races. For the first time, they helped elect a resident who lives along the Trail.

And the issue hasn’t subsided, either.

In April, three Council Members voted to undercut the City’s own Hearing Examiner and side with King County, developer of the Trail, on a jurisdictional issue in an appeal before the State Shoreline Hearings Board.

This is the story behind the 20-year battle of the ELST.

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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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Top 10 stories of 2015 in Sammamish

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Sammamish Comment LogoHere are the Top 10 stories in Sammamish for 2015, as measured by readership on Sammamish Comment:

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Sahalee Way project design put off to next year

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Sammamish issued this statement on its website last week:

The Sahalee Way Open House report previously scheduled for the Nov. 17 City Council meeting has been postponed. That report, which will summarize resident comments received at the Nov. 4 Sahalee Way Open House and other public input opportunities, will be scheduled for later this year or early next year. The delay will provide more time for staff to properly tabulate the high volume of comment received and also give incoming City Council members a greater opportunity to take part in the decision process. The city will provide advance notice when the new report date is set.

This is the right decision. As Sammamish Comment previously reported, the City was rushing to approve the contract this year on a schedule that allowed virtually no public input before the decisions were made.

At the Nov. 4 Open House, at the Boys and Girls Club, the turnout was far more than expected. Getting to the tables with the preliminary plans was difficult. Although a few residents complained about the lack of a formal presentation, it’s clear from the turnout and the City comments above that the Open House was useful and productive.

How Sammamish veterans lost their City Council races

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  • Note: This is 11 pages when printed.
Nov 4 results

Click on image to enlarge.

How did two veterans of Sammamish public service lose their bids for election to the City Council in the Nov. 3 election to two unknown newcomers to the City?

They lost through a combination of miscalculation, arrogance, the split of traditional coalitions, angry opposition, tenacious newcomers and a one-term Council Member who wasn’t about to cower in the face of determined opposition.

They also had an unwitting helping hand from their own Deputy Mayor, whose obsessions galvanized the opposition to upset her allies.

This is the inside story of how Mayor Tom Vance lost to two-year resident Tom Hornish and how former Mayor and Council Member Mark Cross lost a comeback bid to a feisty young Mom in tennis shoes, Christie Malchow, invoking remembrances of another tennis shoe Mom campaign in Washington long before Malchow moved here.

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