City inches toward adding more neighborhoods
April 10, 2009
Three separate swaths of King County came one step closer to becoming part of Sammamish at the April 7 City Council meeting.
Community Development Director Kamuron Gurol recommended to the council that it approve petitions to annex the Aldarra Estates, Montaine and Rosemont neighborhoods. Read more
New code could make real estate signs more visible
April 10, 2009
New, April 10, 3:35 p.m.
Julie Bogden, who owns a home on Southeast 14th Place, has been trying to sell her house for more than a year. She appeared at a City Council meeting March 10, asking for help for finding new ways of advertising her home.
“I need something on 212th (Avenue) where people can drive down and say, ‘Oh, there is a house,’” she said.
Bogden was suggesting that she and homeowners like her would benefit from having additional real estate signs located on streets and intersections not directly in front of the home.
Rosanne Powers, a Windermere Real Estate agent based out of Issaquah, also asked for council action.
“Historically, 80 percent of the buyer pool comes from signage,” Powers said. “Even one sign would be a very big impact for sellers like Julie.”
The city’s current sign code only allows property owners to post real estate signs in front of the property.
But help could be on the way.
Evan Maxim, a senior planner at the city, brought the issue up with the Planning Commission at an April 2 meeting. Based the commission’s discussion, Maxim is now mulling over how to draft an amendment that the City Council could debate in April or May.
The typical procedure for a commission recommendation involves public hearings and an official report and it can take several months. But Maxim said he received direction from the City Council to accelerate the process in this case.
“The basic intent is to give relief to the economic hardship that real estate agents are experiencing right now,” Maxim said.
Maxim has not drafted the code amendment yet, but he said it would likely involve the following:
- A provision allowing real estate agents to post additional signs on private property adjacent to public streets
- A limit on the size of the added signs: about 1 foot by 3 feet
- Multiple signs from separate real estate agents would have to hang from a frame
- The ability to post additional signs would expire by December 2010
Maxim added that private property owners would have to give real estate agents permission before any additional signs could be posted.
Maxim said he hopes to present a draft of the amendment at the April 21 City Council meeting.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
