Property owners hope to increase Town Center density
September 30, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
A group of property owners are seeking to increase density in the city’s plans for a Town Center development.
Kaete Kyncl, John and Petra Hansen, John and Baharudin Galvin, Robert and Cindy Houot, Christopher and Holly Moffatt, and Richard Birgh filed the application Sept. 24.
The Town Center area is about 240 acres including City Hall and the Sammamish Commons, anchored by 228th Avenue and Southeast 4th Street.
Using a bureaucratic mechanism called amending the city’s comprehensive plan, the property owners, who live east of 228th Avenue, have applied for a change to the city’s Town Center master plan document.
The change calls for added commercial units in the southeast quadrant of the Town Center area.
The applicants have drafted a concept design of what their quadrant could look like, which is available at http://www.sammamishtowncenter.com. It includes ground floor restaurants and retail space with condos and apartments.
The current Town Center Master Plan allows for no more than 600,000 square feet of commercial area in all four quadrants of Town Center.
“What we’re asking for is for them to increase that 600,000,” said Gareth Rowe, director of land-use planning for BCRA, a Tacoma-based engineering and architectural firm representing the nine Sammamish property owners.
“The property owners that I represent believe there’s a need for more commercial space than what the city has put in their Town Center plan,” Rowe said.
Rowe said his clients are asking for an increase of 250,000 to 300,000 square feet of commercial space, about 50 percent more than the Sammamish City Council voted to allow.
When the council adopted the Town Center plan, it studied the impacts of up to 675,000 square feet of commercial space (slightly more than they voted to allow).
Increasing the amount of space above that level, for this or any other project, would warrant additional study of new environmental and traffic impacts.
The added commercial space would make the properties more attractive to developers, Rowe explained.
The BCRA concept plans also call for about 300 residential units.
The lands would be mixed-use with office and retail space on the bottom floors of buildings and residential units above.
Michael Matthias, project manager for the Town Center, said the council would review the proposed changes in early 2010.
Kamuron Gurol, the city’s community development director, added that someone on his staff would give a report to the council in December about all proposed changes to the city’s comprehensive plan.
The council could refuse to study the proposal, or it could set a timetable for review at that point.
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.
New: Sept. 30, 4:36 p.m.
A group of property owners are seeking to increase density in the city’s plans for a Town Center development.
Kaete Kyncl, John and Petra Hansen, John and Baharudin Galvin, Robert and Cindy Houot, Christopher and Holly Moffatt, and Richard Birgh filed the application Sept. 24. Read more
