Review editorial
June 18, 2008
By Administrator
Town Center decision deserved citizen input
We are conflicted about the vote by the City Council to allow 600,000 square feet of retail space in the Town Center area.
We do believe Town Center will end up as a net benefit for Sammamish. The addition of thousands of housing units will certainly generate more traffic, but will also create a population density high enough to allow other single-family neighborhoods to enjoy their big backyards.
Sammamish must take its share of growth and it has to go somewhere.
Town Center plans include much-needed office space to create opportunities for at least some Sammamish residents to work close to their homes. (Hey Microsoft, how about one of those telecommuting centers like you opened in Seattle?) While current business owners have been doing yeoman’s work to provide residents with the goods and services they need, the additional space for retail will give residents more options without having to travel elsewhere.
On the other hand, the idea of 600,000 square feet of retail/commercial office space seems to come from nowhere. It is true that previous studies looked at that level of density, and that Councilman Don Gerend raised the possibility in the past. But since then, no one talked about it seriously until last week.
The council’s own preferred option called for 400,000 square feet. The Planning Commission studied that number and recommended a modest increase.
Citizens came to a number of meetings, and did so under the assumption that the choice for commercial space was either 400,000 or 450,000 square feet. Their opportunities to speak ended before the 600,000-square-foot plan (a 50 percent increase) was proposed and adopted.
We cannot believe that a change this dramatic was simply off the cuff; it has likely been sitting in Gerend’s head, the sponsor of the change, for some time. It should have been proposed earlier in this final set of deliberations. The citizens deserved a chance to speak out on the specifics of the proposal, and still do.
City council members Kathy Huckabay and Nancy Whitten abstained from the vote concerning the increase (although they ultimately voted for the plan), wanting more time to think about it. Good for them, although a no vote would have been even more appropriate, or a move to table the decision.
It’s not too late. The council could certainly change its collective mind, but it looks like citizen concern will have to take over the microphone to urge any further deliberations.
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