Council approves Town Center
June 18, 2008
By Emily Keller
Before and after?
The future of Sammamish will have a public park topping off a “Green Spine”, a central business district with offices on the east side of 228th Avenue and stores on the west, and green building and low-impact storm water development techniques scattered throughout. It will provide housing for up to 5,000 new residents.
The City Council unanimously approved a 243-acre development plan for the city’s center at its June 9 meeting, capping off years of discussion and dozens of public meetings.
The plan offers guidance and standards for the development. How quickly the development begins will depend on economic conditions and be funded largely by private developers.
The final plan includes a range of last-minute amendments proposed by city council members to increase the maximum commercial space from 400,000 to 600,000 square feet, designate a 15.5-acre Lake Washington School District property for possible commercial development and make it possible to propose a school anywhere in Town Center.
The amended plan includes a new “Reserve” development zone for the Sammamish Hills Lutheran Church and several single-family homes near the intersection of 228th Avenue and Southeast Eighth Street that allows those property owners to maintain their properties as is, while leaving the door open for future development.
It also encourages storm water management techniques including, but not limited to, Low Impact Development methods.
The council adopted an amendment by Councilman Don Gerend directing them to “consider” using a floor area ratio – which measures a building’s floor area against the size of the land it sits on – in adopting zoning and development regulations in future Town Center discussions.
This measurement could be used in lieu of regulations based on square footage. Council members suggested adding the word “consider” to soften the intent of Gerend’s original proposal.
The amendment also directs the council to design the zoning and development regulations in a way that will achieve the plan’s goals, and says those goals should have the support of the real estate market.
“We’re hoping to generate a plan that actually gets implemented, not a plan that just sits on the shelf and no developer is interested in because we have such strict regulations,” Gerend said, explaining his rationale for the amendment, which he hopes will bring developers into the planning process early on and nudge city planners to hold developer panels.
Councilwoman Nancy Whitten supported the softer language because she said the council could not guarantee that all the plan’s goals would be fulfilled.
“I think it’s understood that our regulations are supposed to carry out the goals of the plan,” she said. “Some of them may be achieved and some of them may not be.”
The council passed an amendment supporting a Parks Department plan for a destination park at the end of the “Green Spine” in the southwest quadrant of the planning site after some debate over whether members were over-stepping their boundaries by doing so.
The Town Center plan is intended to provide guidance for future development but not to begin the design process, which involves private developers and additional review by city staff.
Kamuron Gurol, the city’s director of community development, said the amendment will assure that the northern end of the spine is a public space, rather than becoming a private space by allowing a developer to guide and fund it.
Councilman Don Gerend and Mayor Lee Fellinge opposed the amendment.
“What we’re trying to do here is decide the details of the plan,” Gerend said. “I suggest we let a developer come in and not be shackled with requirements. He might come up with something we like better than the Green Spine.”
Councilwoman Michele Petitti supported the amendment. “Developers are not going to decide parks for us,” Petitti said.
Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay echoed her remarks.
After the final vote, the council gave Gurol a standing ovation for his work on the plan and City Manager Ben Yazici applauded the council for approving the plan, saying, “There is about five mayors’ work on this thing. The city spent over a million dollars on consultant fees and staff’s time.”
The city created the Town Center plan to guide population growth in a way that protects the city’s natural environment, cultural resources and existing neighborhoods. Creating the plan fulfills goals set by the city’s 2003 Comprehensive Plan, which is required by the state’s Growth Management Act. The council’s vote amends the land use portion of the plan.
The next step is for the city’s Planning Commission to review the adopted plan, which will likely take place this fall, said Fellinge.
Town Center Timeline
August 27, 2004
The city sent out a postcard requesting the public’s participation in creating a vision for a future town center within a 546-acre area from Northeast Fourth to Southeast 12th streets and between 233rd and 216th avenues.
Community forums were scheduled for the winter.
September 2004 – January 2005
The City Council appointed a 20-member citizen task force that met seven times and held three community forums to discuss Town Center. The Special Study Area Task Force presented its final vision at a January 25, 2005 meeting.
March 7, 2006
The City Council adopted a vision statement for the project, directing a range of commercial, residential, recreational and cultural activities to the city’s core to make it the “heart of the city.”
July 25, 2006
City Council approved three draft alternatives following two hours of discussion with the Town Center Committee.
The project site is narrowed to about 240 acres and centered around 228th Avenue Southeast and Southeast Fourth Street.
January 31, 2007
The city published a draft environmental impact statement evaluating the three potential development plans and a no-action alternative.
One plan had a commercial focus, with emphasis on retail, office and dense residential. The second had a low-intensity focus with mostly light residential units, and the third had a civic focus with community and recreational facilities, a variety of housing densities and some commercial and office space.
February 27, 2007
The Town Center Committee made recommendations to the City Council calling for low growth, with 1,400 housing units surrounding civic and commercial space near the Sammamish Commons.
The committee recommends 150,000-200,000 square feet of retail space and 50,000-100,000 square feet of office space and is against putting civic amenities on the east side of 228th Avenue.
March 26, 2007
The comment period for the project’s draft environmental impact statement ends after being extended twice.
April 17, 2007
The City Council unanimously adopted a preferred alternative at a meeting that lasts until close to midnight, combining elements from the three proposals.
The approved version proposes possible civic and community amenities including a library, a community center, an aquatic center, art galleries, a community theater, a post office and higher education services. The plan calls for 1,300 to 2,000 housing units and 200,000-400,000 square feet of retail and office space.
The design takes on a “wedding cake ” design, with 4-6 story buildings in the center, a ring of multi-family housing around it and an outer layer of townhouses, cottages and single-family homes.
Councilman Don Gerend requested an increase in mixed-use space.
“Let the developer community and the public tell us what the use will be,” he says. He tried to assuage fears that more mixed-use space would turn Sammamish into Redmond or Bellevue by pointing out that the magnitude of the development would still be much smaller.
October 2, 2007
The city releases a final environmental impact statement for the preferred alternative and a 102-page draft Town Center Plan. This is followed by a Planning Commission review and more public comment and testimony.
The draft plan calls for 200,000-400,000 square feet of retail space and 1,300-2,000 housing units. It has six-story office, retail and other developments in the center, west of the intersection of 228th Avenue Southeast and Southeast Fourth Street, with less dense development surrounding it. Some areas around the edges have single-family homes.
The environmental impact statement says the south portion of 228th Avenue would exceed its capacity by less than 5 percent by 2030, and portions of four streets would get better traffic flows. It says development could negatively affect water quality in Ebright and George Davis creeks.
About two more police officers would be needed with development, and fire protection would need to be redeployed or improved, the statement says. The center’s open spaces would include 30 to 40 acres of public parks, 1.7 acres of privately developed open space, five miles of trails and about 60 acres of streams, wetlands and forest-type areas.
February 19, 2008
The Planning Commission makes its Town Center recommendations to City Council after holding public hearings on January 3 and 10. The commission calls for an increase in maximum commercial space to 450,000 square feet, and 2,000 housing units. The commission recommends consolidating mixed-use commercial space on the west side of 228th Avenue, saying successful town centers have concentrated commercial space and splitting it up on both sides of the avenue would turn the space into strip malls.
June 3, 2008
The council schedules a final vote on Town Center and adopts several amendments to the plan but adjourns after midnight with more than a dozen proposed amendments left to discuss. The council votes 5-0-2 for an increase in maximum commercial space, which Councilman Don Gerend proposes. This brings the total to 600,000 square feet and adds the new space to the east side against the Planning Commission’s recommendation. Council members Kathy Huckabay and Nancy Whitten abstain.
June 9, 2008
City Council unanimously adopts the Town Center Plan shortly after 11 p.m.
Reporter Emily Keller can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or ekeller@isspress.com.
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