Year in Review: Sammamish adjusts to economy
December 31, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
By J.B. Wogan and Christopher Huber
The single thematic thread that wove through most of 2009’s major news stories is the recession — how every day citizens and government officials had to adjust to shrinking revenues and where they continued business as usual. It was also the year of landmarks for Sammamish — a double-digit birthday, some of the coldest and hottest weather, the first annexed neighborhoods and a string of high school state championships.
One of the City Council’s heftiest burdens in 2009 was the updating of its shoreline building regulations as mandated by the state Department of Ecology, a two-year process that left many lakefront homeowners nervous. With sales prices on homes already tanking, homeowners feared the new regulations threatened to make it harder to market property at the highest value possible.
A cooperative effort by property owners, city staff and the council resulted in an imperfect compromise passed Oct. 9 that most agreed was an improvement from committee and staff drafts, but not totally satisfactory for any one faction. The city is still waiting to hear back from the state Department of Ecology, which gave some early signs that it might reject a portion of regulations for being too lax.
Property owners along the city’s lakes and elsewhere had reason to fret about the value of their land in 2009 — the latest data from November showed that the median sales price in Sammamish dropped 14.3 percent in a year. In 2008, the median sales price was $617,500 and in 2009 it was $529,000.
In July, the King County Assessor’s Office released information based on slightly different metrics that implied the same trend. The assessor’s office said property values across the city were down about 16 percent.
Cutting back
As residents saw property diminish in value, it’s no surprise that their elected representatives felt pressure to be more frugal. Early signs of this cost-conscious mentality popped up when the council punted two budgeted items off the books and into limbo. One was a $100,000 town clock that would have sprouted up somewhere near City Hall and the skate park. The other was the Freed House, a 114-year-old historic farmstead home that the Parks Department projected would cost more than $730,000 to relocate and rehabilitate.
Both projects have been delayed indefinitely.
The same cost-cutting approach led to some heated discussions at Eastside Fire & Rescue meetings throughout 2009, where Sammamish representatives sought ways to curb rising expenses related to fire protection. City officials said they were scrutinizing EFR’s budget because the city’s cost had increased at an average of 6 percent per year between 2007 and 2009.
Stakeholders held a meeting at the council chambers in November that EFR Fire Chief Lee Soptich called the first of its kind, with citizens and fire experts airing out grievances in civil tones. A more extensive meeting is planned for Jan. 9, where Sammamish will discuss the future of EFR with its EFR partners from North Bend, Carnation, Issaquah, May Valley, Preston, Tiger Mountain and Wilderness Rim.
New roads, new community center
As revenues flat lined, the city’s plans for ambitious road projects also took a hit. The council reviewed their six-year transportation plan and agreed with staff recommendations not to tackle big-ticket items until after 2014.
Of course, the dearth of road construction in the near future will come only after the city finishes an ambitious set of projects that began in 2009. The city redesigned an intersection at Inglewood Hill Road and East Lake Sammamish Parkway ($6.3 million), it started connecting 244th Avenue ($9.3 million), it began revamping Southeast 20th Street to include a sidewalk and bike lanes ($1.56 million) and it spent $1 million on repairing and repaving deteriorating roads.
The tanking construction market did have one bright spot. Construction bids were more competitive than in past years, resulting in lower-than-expected costs for most city projects and millions in savings. Eyeing that extra cash, the council decided to purchase the old library building for $3.4 million and repurpose it as a teen and recreation center.
The 11-year-old library at the intersection of 228th Avenue and Inglewood Hill Road closed Dec. 14 and would likely have been sold to the highest bidder by the King County Library District. But the city reached a deal in October where it would buy the building and work with the Sammamish Boys and Girls Club to expand and renovate the facility.
The city is expected to take over the building in February, though much of the center’s plans are unresolved. The big question still looming is how the city or independent organizations like the Sammamish Boys and Girls Club will pay for renovating, operating and maintaining the center.
Changes on council and a birthday bash
The suffering economy was also at the center of the local elections this year. All four City Council races were contested, which made it the most competitive set of bouts since the city’s first council election. Candidates debated the city’s current spending habits, ways to make the Town Center a cash cow and whether the city needed either higher taxes or more kinds of taxes.
Kathy Huckabay, a member of the original City Council retired, while Jack Barry, another of the original council, was defeated. Don Gerend, the last remaining founder of the city, will be joined by newcomers John James, John Curley and Tom Odell.
One thing the economy couldn’t put a damper on was a birthday. The city turned 10 in 2009. In its first 10 years, the city has several new parks and ball fields, an off-leash dog area, its own City Hall, its own police department, an expanded 228th Avenue with sidewalks, a park-and-ride, plus several binders worth of municipal code designed to reflect the priorities of the local citizenry.
The mayor held math tests to honor the occasion, city staff collected mementos for a time capsule (to be opened in 40 years) and the city threw a party in August.
Extreme weather
When framing the year’s events in superlatives, the city’s most erratic and extreme set of seasons deserves mention. The year started out with Sammamish actually ducking January’s major weather story. Precipitation carrying over from December 2008 soaked much of east King County with floods, but because of Sammamish’s position up on the plateau it was spared any disasters.
There was no such luck in the summer. A heat wave struck in July, with Seattle recording an all-time high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit July 29. Sammamish families sought respite at the city’s lakes and in air-conditioned spaces, like movie theaters.
And despite a lack of snow in December, the last month of the year was especially nippy, reaching a low of 14 degrees Fahrenheit Dec. 10. Unlike the previous year, the frosty air wasn’t accompanied by inches of snow and ice.
New neighbors, layoff scares
This was also the year of annexations, with Camden Park and its neighboring enclaves being the first county residents to join Sammamish since incorporation, with Rosemont joining soon after.
Between the two annexations, Sammamish increased in size by 117.7 acres and in population by 390 residents. The city also entertained requests from Raven Hill and the Aldarra and Montaine subdivisions and will likely make decisions on those annexations in 2010.
The first requests were no-brainers for the city, with the promise of higher revenues through property taxes with relatively minor cost increases for road maintenance and providing police and fire protection. But the cost-benefit analysis of future neighborhoods, especially given the likely increases of police and fire protection in the future, might give the council pause.
While the city mulled over ways to cut back its budget, school districts were reeling over troubling news: the state’s projected budget deficit of about $9 billion would translate into slashing education funding. Teacher layoffs appeared imminent, though most didn’t happen. The federal government came through with stimulus funds which helped fill part of the hole. Then, the school districts made a range of their own changes, including increasing class sizes and tripling some fees for playing sports.
Tons of titles
Not that the fees appeared to discourage or inhibit athletic excellence on the plateau. The city’s high schools won a combined 10 state championships and racked up a handful of individual and team championships at the conference and district levels.
The Skyline cheer squad began the year with a state title in January and Eastlake’s Kevin Penner took his second golf title in three years in May. Skyline’s Kasen Williams went on to win the 4A state title in the high jump.
The Eastlake girls cross country began the run of fall state titles when it won its second straight 4A championship. The Skyline girls swim and dive team followed suit with its first-ever team title in November. Senior swimmer Andie Taylor and freshman Maria Volodkevich each won a title, as well. Eastlake’s Katie Kinnear also won an individual swimming title.
Skyline’s football and girls soccer teams took 2009 sports out with a bang when they both repeated as 4A state champions. The football team made it three straight, including its 2007 Class 3A championship.
New: Dec. 31, 2:37 p.m.
The single thematic thread that wove through most of 2009’s major news stories is the recession — how every day citizens and government officials had to adjust to shrinking revenues and where they continued business as usual. It was also the year of landmarks for Sammamish — a double-digit birthday, some of the coldest and hottest weather, the first annexed neighborhoods and a string of high school state championships.
One of the City Council’s heftiest burdens in 2009 was the updating of its shoreline building regulations as mandated by the state Department of Ecology, a two-year process that left many lakefront homeowners nervous. With sales prices on homes already tanking, homeowners feared the new regulations threatened to make it harder to market property at the highest value possible.
A cooperative effort by property owners, city staff and the council resulted in an imperfect compromise passed Oct. 9 that most agreed was an improvement from committee and staff drafts, but not totally satisfactory for any one faction. The city is still waiting to hear back from the state Department of Ecology, which gave some early signs that it might reject a portion of regulations for being too lax.
Property owners along the city’s lakes and elsewhere had reason to fret about the value of their land in 2009 — the latest data from November showed that the median sales price in Sammamish dropped 14.3 percent in a year. In 2008, the median sales price was $617,500 and in 2009 it was $529,000.
In July, the King County Assessor’s Office released information based on slightly different metrics that implied the same trend. The assessor’s office said property values across the city were down about 16 percent.
Cutting back
As residents saw property diminish in value, it’s no surprise that their elected representatives felt pressure to be more frugal. Early signs of this cost-conscious mentality popped up when the council punted two budgeted items off the books and into limbo. One was a $100,000 town clock that would have sprouted up somewhere near City Hall and the skate park. The other was the Freed House, a 114-year-old historic farmstead home that the Parks Department projected would cost more than $730,000 to relocate and rehabilitate.
Both projects have been delayed indefinitely.
The same cost-cutting approach led to some heated discussions at Eastside Fire & Rescue meetings throughout 2009, where Sammamish representatives sought ways to curb rising expenses related to fire protection. City officials said they were scrutinizing EFR’s budget because the city’s cost had increased at an average of 6 percent per year between 2007 and 2009.
Stakeholders held a meeting at the council chambers in November that EFR Fire Chief Lee Soptich called the first of its kind, with citizens and fire experts airing out grievances in civil tones. A more extensive meeting is planned for Jan. 9, where Sammamish will discuss the future of EFR with its EFR partners from North Bend, Carnation, Issaquah, May Valley, Preston, Tiger Mountain and Wilderness Rim.
New roads, new community center
As revenues flat lined, the city’s plans for ambitious road projects also took a hit. The council reviewed their six-year transportation plan and agreed with staff recommendations not to tackle big-ticket items until after 2014.
Of course, the dearth of road construction in the near future will come only after the city finishes an ambitious set of projects that began in 2009. The city redesigned an intersection at Inglewood Hill Road and East Lake Sammamish Parkway ($6.3 million), it started connecting 244th Avenue ($9.3 million), it began revamping Southeast 20th Street to include a sidewalk and bike lanes ($1.56 million) and it spent $1 million on repairing and repaving deteriorating roads.
The tanking construction market did have one bright spot. Construction bids were more competitive than in past years, resulting in lower-than-expected costs for most city projects and millions in savings. Eyeing that extra cash, the council decided to purchase the old library building for $3.4 million and repurpose it as a teen and recreation center.
The 11-year-old library at the intersection of 228th Avenue and Inglewood Hill Road closed Dec. 14 and would likely have been sold to the highest bidder by the King County Library District. But the city reached a deal in October where it would buy the building and work with the Sammamish Boys and Girls Club to expand and renovate the facility.
The city is expected to take over the building in February, though much of the center’s plans are unresolved. The big question still looming is how the city or independent organizations like the Sammamish Boys and Girls Club will pay for renovating, operating and maintaining the center.
Changes on council and a birthday bash
The suffering economy was also at the center of the local elections this year. All four City Council races were contested, which made it the most competitive set of bouts since the city’s first council election. Candidates debated the city’s current spending habits, ways to make the Town Center a cash cow and whether the city needed either higher taxes or more kinds of taxes.
Kathy Huckabay, a member of the original City Council retired, while Jack Barry, another of the original council, was defeated. Don Gerend, the last remaining founder of the city, will be joined by newcomers John James, John Curley and Tom Odell.
One thing the economy couldn’t put a damper on was a birthday. The city turned 10 in 2009. In its first 10 years, the city has several new parks and ball fields, an off-leash dog area, its own City Hall, its own police department, an expanded 228th Avenue with sidewalks, a park-and-ride, plus several binders worth of municipal code designed to reflect the priorities of the local citizenry.
The mayor held math tests to honor the occasion, city staff collected mementos for a time capsule (to be opened in 40 years) and the city threw a party in August.
Extreme weather
When framing the year’s events in superlatives, the city’s most erratic and extreme set of seasons deserves mention. The year started out with Sammamish actually ducking January’s major weather story. Precipitation carrying over from December 2008 soaked much of east King County with floods, but because of Sammamish’s position up on the plateau it was spared any disasters.
There was no such luck in the summer. A heat wave struck in July, with Seattle recording an all-time high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit July 29. Sammamish families sought respite at the city’s lakes and in air-conditioned spaces, like movie theaters.
And despite a lack of snow in December, the last month of the year was especially nippy, reaching a low of 14 degrees Fahrenheit Dec. 10. Unlike the previous year, the frosty air wasn’t accompanied by inches of snow and ice.
New neighbors, layoff scares
This was also the year of annexations, with Camden Park and its neighboring enclaves being the first county residents to join Sammamish since incorporation, with Rosemont joining soon after.
Between the two annexations, Sammamish increased in size by 117.7 acres and in population by 390 residents. The city also entertained requests from Raven Hill and the Aldarra and Montaine subdivisions and will likely make decisions on those annexations in 2010.
The first requests were no-brainers for the city, with the promise of higher revenues through property taxes with relatively minor cost increases for road maintenance and providing police and fire protection. But the cost-benefit analysis of future neighborhoods, especially given the likely increases of police and fire protection in the future, might give the council pause.
While the city mulled over ways to cut back its budget, school districts were reeling over troubling news: the state’s projected budget deficit of about $9 billion would translate into slashing education funding. Teacher layoffs appeared imminent, though most didn’t happen. The federal government came through with stimulus funds which helped fill part of the hole. Then, the school districts made a range of their own changes, including increasing class sizes and tripling some fees for playing sports.
Tons of titles
Not that the fees appeared to discourage or inhibit athletic excellence on the plateau. The city’s high schools won a combined 10 state championships and racked up a handful of individual and team championships at the conference and district levels.
The Skyline cheer squad began the year with a state title in January and Eastlake’s Kevin Penner took his second golf title in three years in May. Skyline’s Kasen Williams went on to win the 4A state title in the high jump.
The Eastlake girls cross country began the run of fall state titles when it won its second straight 4A championship. The Skyline girls swim and dive team followed suit with its first-ever team title in November. Senior swimmer Andie Taylor and freshman Maria Volodkevich each won a title, as well. Eastlake’s Katie Kinnear also won an individual swimming title.
Skyline’s football and girls soccer teams took 2009 sports out with a bang when they both repeated as 4A state champions. The football team made it three straight, including its 2007 Class 3A championship.
Reporter Christopher Huber contributed to this story.
Other Stories of Interest: 244th Avenue Construction, Annexation, East Lake Sammamish Parkway, Eastside Fire & Rescue, Election 2009, Freed House, Sammamish Library, Shoreline Master Plan, Southeast 20th Sidewalk, state championship, teen center, weather
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