Sammamish Forum Feb. 13
February 13, 2013
By Administrator
They’ll take Ace
The City Council’s Jan. 22 motion denying the Ace Hardware proposal ended with instructions to the City Manager to work with Ace Hardware to “explore options to relocate elsewhere in Sammamish.”
Assuming the City Council’s commitment to keeping Ace Hardware open and operating in Sammamish is sincere, we, landowners in the SE Quadrant, propose that the City Council support locating Ace Hardware on the parcel of land in the Southeast Quadrant that Tim Koch originally selected as the new location for Ace Hardware.
The 2.3 acre parcel has no wetlands, does not require a zoning change, has access to 228th Avenue with all required utilities, presents no legal problems and Ace Hardware will be a dynamic part of development that is poised to happen.
Moreover, the Town Center Plan and ordinances provide the Director of Community Development with considerable discretion in implementing a project.
The obstacles put in front of Ace Hardware during the several months between January and April of 2012, are now known to be unacceptable and the City Council and staff have publicly advocated flexibility with issues such as the structured parking requirement, the demand that Ace Hardware bare full responsibility for area stormwater management, the presentation of detailed engineering specifications for the entire area.
A willingness to be flexible where in the past there was no flexibility creates an entirely new context that can facilitate location of Ace Hardware on this parcel.
We propose that the City Council immediately request Tim Koch and his team of experts to shift their plans to the parcel in the Southeast Quadrant.
Tim Koch has already signed an agreement for an option to purchase this land. It is available and ready to go.
Ace will be a key element in a village-like development of retail space, office and town homes. At this time, the only missing piece for a successful relocation of Ace Hardware is the City Council and City Manager’s commitment to see the job done.
John Galvin
The writer is a property owner in the Southeast Quadrant.
What is the gun answer?
The recent “Gun Control…” letter asks a question that deserves an answer. The writer implies gun control advocates used children to advance their cause, and then were offended when the NRA “simply” did the same thing when pointing out that President Obama’s children went to a school protected by armed guards. She asks “Anybody else see the hypocrisy here?” My answer is no, absolutely not.
The current president requires what I’ve seen called “unprecedented” protection, so it doesn’t surprise me that his children are also well protected.
Fortunately, the vast majority of our kids don’t face the same level of threats.
But how do we protect the ones who do? The above claims of hypocrisy are typical NRA’s tactics, distorting and rejecting every argument against controls, no matter how reasonable or modest. Even studying gun use to allow informed decisions is a threat!
The NRA’s above solution to protecting children is to do what we do for the president’s kids, add security guards to schools, and arm teachers, too. That didn’t help at Columbine.
And consider an article in a recent Time magazine (“Your Brain In A Shootout”). It states that in a gunfight, even trained police officers hit their intended target only 18 percent of the time! Where did the other 82 percent of those bullets go?
Think what that statistic would be for typical armed teachers and guards. They may help, but at what collateral cost? Could they help more? Sure. The article points out that weapon approval programs for teachers provide only hours or perhaps a few days of training.
Whereas police professionals agree at least several weeks or more of rigorous confrontational training is needed. Ready to pay for that?
Guns are a fact in our society and aren’t going away.
That can be OK. But just as Republicans learned in the recent election, the NRA needs to learn there is a cost to saying “no” against the will of most Americans.
Surely some level of gun control can be part of a broad array of efforts to reduce violence in our society.
Tom Johnson
Sammamish
Thanks, police
When our car got stuck on 228th in front of the Sammamish Plateau Water District offices last Friday, two police cars responded to our call for help.
A tow truck was dispatched to take the disabled car to the dealer, and we were safely escorted to our house on Beaver Lake.
Thank you, Sammamish Police — we are grateful.
Acar and Kazuko Bill
Sammamish
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