The City Council tilted a set of regulations on home businesses to favor the neighbors of those businesses. The council, at its May 14 meeting, cited concerns about the traffic, noise and other impacts on residential neighborhoods.

The updated regulations passed 6-1 after extensive last-minute amendments. Councilwoman Nancy Whitten, the dissenting vote, led the charge on the neighbor-friendly tweaks, worrying that the Planning Commission-crafted law would lead to a proliferation of people running disruptive businesses out of their homes. She said that the changes still did not go far enough to protect the neighbors.

“The presumption needs to be in favor of residents and neighborhoods rather than in favor of people that want to have a business that is apt to be intrusive,” Whitten said.

According to U.S. Census figures, there are about 1,639 home businesses in the city. A majority of the people who work from home would likely not be affected by the new regulations, since current home businesses are grandfathered in under the old law. But a homeowner hoping to start a new business might face a few more restrictions, particularly if they plan to have customers coming and going or do anything that could draw the attention of a neighbor. Current businesses could also be affected if they make significant changes to their business model and have to reapply for a home business license.

The council retained bans on several types of businesses that the commission had suggested doing away with, including automobile, truck and heavy equipment repair, vehicle painting and veterinary clinics.

Commission members pointed out that Sammamish still has hundreds of multi-acre properties that could host such a business without imposing on the neighbors. The home business code contains multiple other requirements that such a business would have to meet, such as keeping business activity more than 20 feet from property lines. Any potentially disruptive business would also have to obtain a conditional use permit. The permitting process would give neighbors the opportunity to weigh in and the city the opportunity to place specific regulations on the business –such as when it can be open and how many clients can visit in a given day, for example.

But leaving the matter up to the judgment of city staff was not enough for several councilmembers, who recounted their own horror stories of living next to carpentry and automobile restoration businesses and conjured up theoretical problem businesses that could pop up in local neighborhoods.

Deputy Mayor John James said liberalizing the rules would “nullify” the concept of zoning in the city.

“It’s a slippery slope to go down this path and allow these types of uses in residential zones,” he said. “This is the quickest way to get us off the (CNN/Money Magazine Top Cities list).”

The council also retained a requirement that a maximum of 50 percent of the floor area of a home be dedicated to business and required that Type 1 businesses – generally low impact businesses like lawyers and consultants – have no more than three non-resident employees and no more than three cars on site related to the business.

Whitten also insisted on adding language prohibiting businesses from creating vibrations that affect neighbors. Whitten recalled being bothered by a neighbor who did lots of carpentry work.

“In the summer time the garage doors open and the saws come outside,” she said. “It made my whole deck wobble.”

During deliberations, Whitten attempted to delay the passage of the ordinance, suggesting that the council form a committee to do more outreach and get more information from neighborhoods. Much of the testimony heard by the commission came from home business owners and the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce.

“We need a public dialogue – not just with the business owners, but with homeowners to see what their input is,” she said.

Whitten was overruled after City Manager Ben Yazici noted that the commission had held six public hearings on the matter, in addition to the two times it had been discussed at council meetings.

Councilman John Curley said tighter regulations likely wouldn’t stop residents from running businesses out of their homes, just make people less likely to apply for a permit with the city, giving the city and neighbors a chance to weigh in. He noted that the city had received only two complaints about a home business’s impact in the last four years.

“When you outlaw auto body painting, only outlaws will auto body paint,” he said.

Councilman Don Gerend agreed, saying that intermixing businesses amongst residential zones was part of the new “paradigm” in urban design that the city is trying to model its Town Center after.

“I think we’re making a mountain out of a molehill here,” he said.

Though much of the concern from the council centered around the amount of cars coming and going from a home business, Claudia Haunreiter, a retired hairdresser who ran a salon out of her Sammamish home for 26 years, noted there may be some positives to added activity in a neighborhood.

“Our neighborhood can feel assured that we do watch the coming and going of cars while most of the neighbors are gone to work, leaving their home empty and ready for intruders,” she wrote in an email to the council. “An empty neighborhood is an open invitation for intruders.”

A plan to rewrite regulations surrounding home businesses seems likely to get an overhaul by the City Council.

After months of deliberation, the Planning Commission proposed a set of rules governing how the businesses should operate. Some on the City Council are lukewarm to the ideas, saying they favor businesses over homeowners.

Several councilmembers asked Community Development Director Kamuron Gurol and Planning Commission Chairman Joe Lipinsky pointed questions about the commission’s recommended ordinance, which relaxes regulations on size and business models of the thousands of home-based businesses in the city of Sammamish. The commission’s suggested ordinance gives Gurol and his staff more leeway in determining whether a home business fits with the surrounding residential neighborhood.

Lipinsky said the commission, which held a half-dozen meetings on the subject, heard from numerous home business owners in Sammamish – from artists to consultants to hairdressers – all of whom urged a less restrictive standard that allows the city to take each proposed business on a case-by-case basis.

Senior Planner Evan Maxim said the city has issued licenses to more than 4,000 home businesses in the city, though it’s likely that not all of those businesses are still active. A bit more than 1,600 Sammamish residents said they worked from their homes on the 2010 federal census – more than 7 percent of the workforce in the city.

“The city of Sammamish is filled with professionals that have home businesses,” Lipinsky said. “We got public input from the beginning to the end of this process and it was moving us in this direction.”

Councilman Tom Vance, himself a former chairman of the planning commission, said he didn’t think the commission got enough input from neighbors negatively affected by a highly active home business. The Sammamish Chamber of Commerce spread the word about the commission’s meetings on the subject.

“What you get (during public input) is people most interested in a particular position showing up,” Vance said. “What you didn’t get a lot of is the neighborhood folks.”

Vance said he was opposed to the commission’s recommendation that the city do away with limits on the amount of floor space in the home devoted to business. The city’s current regulations require that no more than 20 percent of a home be devoted to the business for a small-scale “home occupation” business like a lawyer or consultant. For larger-impact businesses – a winery or nursery, for example – no more than half of the floor area of the home can be devoted to the business under the current regulations.

“Having a cot in the back room that you sleep on does not necessarily make it a home and having a cot in the back room is not necessarily compatible with a neighborhood,” Vance said.

Gurol said he or his staff would have a hard time approving such a home business.

“If someone wanted to use 80 percent of their structure for business and had a cot in the back bedroom and say that was their residence, I think I’d have a hard time approving that as compatible (with the neighborhood),” Gurol said.

He added that any potentially high-impact business would have to apply for a conditional use permit, which would allow the city to gather input from neighbors and possibly impose restrictions, such as limiting the hours of operation or amount of customers that can come and go.

While the proposed code leaves it up to city staff to determine whether a potential home business is compatible with the neighborhood, it is not without requirements. A “Type 2” – or potentially high impact – business would be required to ensure that business activity is not occurring within 20 feet of property lines and that any activity going on outdoors not be visible from adjacent properties or a public street.

No business types are expressly prohibited by the proposed code, which is a change from the current regulations. The code currently forbids automobile repair or painting and any business that requires the “parking or storage of heavy equipment” or “storage of building materials for other properties” in residential areas.

Lipinsky told the council that the commission felt such outright bans didn’t make sense, given the rural nature and multi-acre lots of some parts of the city. He pointed to the example of someone who lives on a five-acre lot and operates a small-scale business restoring antique vehicles. The proposed code would allow such a home business if the applicant could prove their business would not bother neighbors.

Mayor Tom Odell questioned why the council was reviewing the ordinance in the first place.

“There’s the old saying: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it;’ what are we trying to fix here?” he asked.

Gurol said there are current home businesses that have been operating in the city for a long time with no problems but may not be in compliance with some of the standards in the current regulations. The requirements on the floor area devoted to business, in particular, don’t necessarily reflect the impact on a neighborhood.

“Do we have restrictions in the code that are overly restrictive and not really advancing a public policy purpose?” he asked. “When one business is using 20 percent of their floor area and another is using 22 percent – it’s tough to see any real difference there. We’re trying to make sure we’re friendly to home businesses while still having compatibility with the neighborhood.”

Odell said he was concerned that the proposed code left too much up to the subjective opinions of city staff, which could mean more legal challenges from aggrieved neighbors.

“As I read through this, it struck me that there’s a lot of wiggle room in here that does not exist today,” Odell said. “Maybe it doesn’t exist for a reason. Are we setting ourselves up for future contested decisions that go to the Hearing Examiner?”

Councilman Ramiro Valderrama praised the commission’s work and the added flexibility in the proposed code.

Councilwoman Nancy Whitten echoed the concerns of Odell and Vance.

“I like the (subjective) approach in some respects, but to ditch and throw out what we had – I’m not sure that’s the way to go,” she said. “There’s no objective criteria here. The subjective nature of the ordinance concerns me.”

The council is scheduled to discuss the home business regulations at their May 1 and May 14 meetings.

Third in the Apna Bazar grocery family, the store right off of 228th Avenue is the product of a nearly five year ambition to bring an Indian market to Sammamish.

“This is a location that will make our relationship stronger with our customers,” said co-owner Samir Bhatt, who with many friends in the area, said he spends a lot of weekends in Sammamish.

There are two other Apna Bazars, one each in Bellevue and Bothell, and for several years people have been making the trip from Sammamish to shop at the stores. The manager of the Bellevue store, as well as the new Sammamish location, Anand Joshi, said that many customers have been asking for an Apna Bazar in their own town.

“The [Indian] community is growing up there for sure,” said Joshi, who splits his days between the Bellevue and Sammamish stores. “The idea is to reach the whole Indian community.”

Bhatt started looking for property in the area for their store in 2007 but finding one with 5,000 square feet was not that easy. Size was non-negotiable for him and his business partners Vijay Beniwal and Srinivasa Sanagaballi.

As the three all come from different regions of India they wanted their stores to cater to the diverse foods that come from the country’s many cultures. They now carry more than 3,000 products and are on the look out for more – like organic spices.

“We think that, not only the Indian population, but the American population would appreciate them,” said Bhatt.

Apna Bazar also wants to make Indian food more accessible to people who may not be well versed in making curries.

“We’ve got a lot of curious people and they are very happy that there is a store opened in Sammamish,” said Joshi. “My idea is to retail to the community, Indian or non-Indian is not a problem.”

After speaking with several customers who wanted more recipes Joshi has ordered cookbooks for the Sammamish store. He expects they will be on the shelves within the week.

The Sammamish Chamber of Commerce estimates that 3,500 city residents – almost 8 percent of the population – work out of their homes in some fashion, whether that’s as a consultant, artist or dog-walker.

Though most of those existing businesses wouldn’t be affected, some business owners fear that a scheduled update of the city’s regulations on home businesses could make it more difficult for future residents to run a business from home.

The city’s Planning Commission is currently weighing changes to the code, tasked with balancing the rights of home businesses with the tranquil character of Sammamish’s residential neighborhoods. The city often fields complaints from residents about the impact of a neighboring home business, including clients and commercial delivery trucks coming and going.

“I understand what they’re trying to do, but they have to look at from the point of view of a small business,” said Jamie McKay, owner of Striking Art Studio in the Plateau Point neighborhood. “If I had to follow these rules when I opened in 2006 I wouldn’t have been able to afford to do this.”

McKay emphasized that her problem was with the original draft of the code that was presented to the commission in October. McKay and other home business owners have testified at recent commission meetings, leading to a second draft that was a bit more accommodating though still worrisome.

The code breaks up home businesses into two categories based on the level of impact on the surrounding area. “Type 1” businesses are those with little in the way of customers visiting the site – financial advisors, architects and attorneys, for example. “Type 2” businesses are those with a bit larger of a footprint on the neighborhood – wineries, nurseries and other businesses that require heavy equipment or building materials, for example. City officials determine whether a business qualifies as one or the other.

Artists with home studios, like McKay, have been the most outspoken about the regulations thus far. As written, the regulations prohibit the storage of “hazardous chemicals” at a home business, which McKay said could make it impossible to run an art studio, which often needs compressed propane or oxygen or small amounts of other chemicals.

For Type 1 business, the code also calls for no more than three business-related vehicles, including those of customers, to be parked in the vicinity of the home at one time.

The business must also do all on-site sales by appointment and no more than six appointments can be made in a 24-hour period. Tractor-trailer and semi-truck deliveries are “generally prohibited,” according to the code.

Any owner whose business plan goes beyond those regulations must apply for a Type 2 permit, which requires a conditional use permit and notification of neighbors. As written, the code requires that a Type 2 business be located on a property that is at least three-quarters of an acre and that business activity be no closer than 20 feet to property lines and “fully screened from adjacent properties and streets.”

With lots in most of the city’s neighborhoods much smaller than three-quarters of an acre, that could prohibit future businesses similar to McKay’s. McKay holds workshops with no more than four students at a time a couple times a month in her studio.

Janet Gadallah, who runs a pottery studio out of her Sammamish home, said she has been impressed with the commission’s openness to tweaking the code thus far, but she worries that the next person to try and open a home studio in Sammamish might run into problems.

“From an arts community standpoint, we’re trying to make sure the next (home studios) to come along aren’t stopped in their tracks,” Gadallah said.

The commission has extended their public comment period until their Jan. 19 meeting. The code changes will then be forwarded to the city council, which will have the final say in February or March.

Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.

One of Sammamish’s longest-running businesses may soon be out of a home after a dispute over the lease with the company’s landlord.

Ace Hardware, which has inhabited the corner of Sammamish Highlands shopping center for nearly 20 years, will be moving out of the space by next September after owner Tim Koch could not agree to a new lease with Regency Centers, the nation-wide commercial real estate company that owns and runs both shopping centers in town.

Owner Tim Koch stands in front of the Sammamish Ace Hardware, which he has owned and operated since 2000. The store, which predates the city’s incorporation, may be out of a home due to a rent dispute with its landlord. Photo by Caleb Heeringa

Koch said Regency had been asking for much higher rent on the next lease. He said he’d been in negotiations with the company for months but in late-October received word that Regency had signed a letter of intent with a “large national chain” to take over the space.

“It’s a typical case of a large corporate business squishing the little guy,” said Koch, who has owned the store since 2000.

Ace Hardware has 37 locations around the Puget Sound area and 4,400 across the country, though Koch points out that the Sammamish Ace has always had close ties to the community. Koch lives in Samammish, as do most of his 23 employees. Koch sees the store as an “old-fahsioned hardware store.” A candy machine in the back of the store still dispenses M&Ms for a nickel.

Koch is now looking at other potential locations that would allow the store to stay in Sammamish but is low on options, with commercial property scarce inside city limits. He said he’s currently studying his options, including buying land and building a new store from scratch, but calls it an “insurmountable task.”

“My hope is that there’s someone out there that has some land that they’ve been holding on to,” Koch said.

Though commercial space is much more prevalent in Redmond or Issaquah, Koch said moving the store out of Sammamish would be a loss to the community and mean more trips off and on the plateau for local residents.

“We’ve got a loyal customer base – (Sammamish) is where we want to stay,” Koch said. “But if we can’t find any land or other space we’re going to be forced to do something else.”

Store manager Larry Rothmier said the store’s relatively small scale provides a level of customer service that you don’t get at larger retailers around the area.

“We know our customers and they know us,” Rothmier said. “Anyone can open up a ‘big box,’ but you’re not going to get the same sort of customer service as you would here.”

Regency officials declined to comment.

Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.

It’s back and bigger than ever,

The Sammamish Farmer’s Market will kick off its fourth year May 18, featuring even more organic produce and food, handmade artwork and family-friendly events.

Organizers, including new market manager Juliana Pash, say they have 28 food producers signed up for this year’s market, which happens from 4 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday through the end of September. That’s a far cry from the market’s modest beginning, which started with about seven farmers and a handful of artists in 2008.

“It has surpassed my expectations,” said Deb Sogge, executive director of the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce. “It was tough those first couple years getting everything set up and finding farmers … Now we have farmers spreading the word for us.”

Sammamish residents and those from surrounding communities have caught on to the bounty of organic food and locally made artwork available at the market. Sogge said they used to see 250 to 300 attendees a week, but saw close to 650 a week last year. They’re hoping attendance will climb even more this year, with even more variety of items being sold and children’s events available every week instead of every other week. One planned event is the planting of seedlings in eggshells.

New vendors this year include:

• One Leaf Farm, a Carnation-based organic farm.
• Daring Darlings Bakery, which serves gluten-free and vegan baked goods and is a regular at the farmers market in Seattle’s U-District.
• New ready-to-eat food vendors serving everything from pizza to Middle Eastern samosas to kettle corn.

The market gives preferential treatment to artists and food producers from Sammamish. At least one Sammamish-based vintner, Rock Meadow Cellars, will be on hand most weeks and vintners from neighboring cities are also getting on board.

Most weeks will also include live music. Opening day, May 18, will feature Eastlake High School’s drum line and the Essie Blue Band, which plays bluegrass and folk music.

Mayor Don Gerend will also be on hand for a ceremonial ribbon cutting to mark the start of the market’s season.

Pash is a resident of the Tree Farm neighborhood whose volunteer work was instrumental in getting the market together in its infancy. As the new manager of the event, she hopes to build on last year’s growth and continue to make the market an asset to a community starved for truly organic and local food. She said the event is a perfect opportunity to meet fellow Sammamish residents you may not otherwise run into.

“I think it’s a great chance to come and support local and regional farmers,” Pash said. “You can do all your produce shopping for the whole week there.”

It took Eastside Catholic senior Matt Wenzinger about a month to land his part-time job at Ristorante Simone in Sammamish. Many of his friends had also been applying for work, to take financial pressure off their parents, some of whom had been negatively affected by the down economy. He looked around, applying to other restaurants, but finally found the right fit at the new Italian restaurant in August.

“It didn’t come that easy for me, but when found that spot I got the job,” Wenzinger said.

The young Sammamish resident started working as a busser to save a little bit of money for college, but also to learn the value of working for his money, he said.

“My parents wanted me to learn the value of the dollar,” Wenzinger said. “I really learned how to manage my money.”

While Wenzinger lucked out when Ristorante Simone hired him part-time, other high school students haven’t always been as fortunate in the increasingly tough local job market.

Students and career specialists at Sammamish high schools said they have noticed a slight decrease in the amount employment opportunities for youth who want to work while attending school. Staple employers like Target, Michaels, Best Buy, Safeway and other larger companies still seem to have a need for local teens in the workforce, they said, but some smaller local businesses — even families with odd jobs — don’t necessarily have the same needs of late.

“It appears that, in general, there are fewer this year,” said Joanna Staikos, Skyline career specialist. “Even the requests for babysitters and tutors has decreased since I began in the Career Center three years ago.”

As has been the case in the mainstream job market, Ricky Simone, owner of Ristorante Simone, said he’s seeing significantly more applications for his job openings.

“It’s amazing how many are applying for a job,” he said.

Each school provides resources for the students and keeps them updated on summer job opportunities, local year-round job listings and even jobs like gardening and internships.

“I know the kids are in here all time looking for opportunities,” said Karen Edgar, Skyline college and career counselor. “I definitely see kids every day that are interested in pursuing summer opportunities.”

Students seem to spend the fall term establishing what their school workload demands and then start applying to jobs based on their availability, she said.

“Typically, there is an upswing in interest for finding jobs in the middle of winter throughout the spring,” Staikos said.

Although the opportunities, in general, are fewer than a few years ago, jobs for students over 18 or with a food-handler’s permit are still better, Staikos said.

“The opportunities for our 18-plus students are more abundant as they can pursue Target, Michaels and Best Buy, which typically have ongoing needs,” Staikos said. “We encourage students to be proactive and get a food-handler’s permit so that when these options become available, they are ready to strike.”

Nilofar Ganjaie, an Eastlake senior who works at Starbucks along the school’s driveway, said it took her from September 2009 to March 2010 to finally get hired as a barista.

“I basically felt bad asking my mom for money all the time,” she said.

She applied for numerous other part-time jobs in the Sammamish-Issaquah area and employers simply did not have the need for another person on staff, she said. She attributed landing her current job to knowing someone who already worked there.

“Everyone just told me that they weren’t hiring,” Ganjaie said. But, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

One thing she likes about working in high school is disengaging from the routine of school. She is able to balance her 15 to 20 hours per week on the job with the increasing rigors of school and is able to make some money, she said.

“It’s nice to like get away from just the high school stuff,” Ganjaie said. “It’s nice to be around people that aren’t just talking about things in high school.”

Ken Watrous, manager of Karate West, said Karate West has not seen a decline in need for hiring local students. The seven local high-school teachers and assistants Karate West employs provide a key link between the youngest students and their experienced adult teachers.

“Our kids, they’re like role models,” Watrous said. “They bridge the gap for the kids that are training in the classes.”

Thinking about the current state of local employment, Ganjaie said she supposes employers see the magnitude of older applicants — many of whom might have a family to feed — and hire them, rather than the youth workers.

“I feel like a manager, a lot of times, wants to hire the older people that apply there because they have more experience or need the money more than the high schoolers,” she said. “But I think it’s good to have variety.”

Simone agreed. He seeks to support the youth in his community, enabling them to use their own hard-earned money to socialize and contribute to the economy.

“It’s a great thing to have the kids. One, they’re local,” he said. “Kids have a great time here when they’re working. You teach them and they rock-and-roll.”

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.

Sammamish saw a slight improvement in real estate sales in 2010, thanks in part to a federal tax credit for first-time home-buyers in the early part of the year.

But buyers rushing to complete deals by the April deadline may have contributed to a bit of a sluggish second half of the year, which saw a 15 percent drop in home sales compared to the same period in 2009.

And the numbers still aren’t what they were a few years ago, before one of the worst recessions in decades hit the country – Sammamish included.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ve turned a corner,” Sammamish Finance Director Lyman Howard said of the real estate market. “But it’s a mixed bag – Sammamish is subject to the same forces as the rest of the country.”

The tax credit, $8,000 for first-time home buyers and $6,500 for second-time buyers, led to a big uptick in sales in March (65) and April (99), compared to 30 or so sales in the same months in 2009.

April’s sales were the most in a single month since July 2007.

Sammamish also outpaced the rest of King County both by the rate and price of home sales – it saw a 10 percent increase in sales year-over-year compared to 4 percent for the county as a whole.

The county also saw the median price of sales drop from $380,000 to $375,000, whereas Sammamish, with its glut of luxury homes, saw homes sell for a bit more – from $534,500 in 2009 to $564,625 in 2010.

While most real estate agents agree that we’ve hit the bottom as far as the market goes, no one’s quite sure how long we’ll stay there.

“I wouldn’t say we’re out of the woods,” said Sam DeBord, an agent with Coldwell Banker Danforth who works across the Eastside. “I know I’m a real estate agent and I’m supposed to make that (optimistic) speech, but we could see a long slide at the bottom here. The job market will be everything. If businesses don’t start hiring … it may be another year or two.”

DeBord said the “great recession” represented a significant price correction in the market that sellers now have to come to terms with. For those that bought at the height of the boom, that often means dropping their asking price and selling at a loss if they wish to move immediately.

“There’s plenty of sellers that only a few years ago thought their home was in the $800,000 area and then saw the market drop 25 percent – that’s a big drop,” DeBord said.

Despite the down economy, Roland Fink, a local realtor with John L. Scott, said Sammamish is relatively lucky compared to some areas. Great schools, low crime and its proximity to job centers and recreation opportunities continue to help the city rank high on national “best places to live” lists.

“There’s a lot of optimism,” Fink said. “There’s been so much positive press for Sammamish in the last couple years … People are still coming here from all over the world.”

Fink said since the state widened Highway 202 he’s seen an increase in people from the Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond areas willing to consider Sammamish as a home.

Fink said it’s a buyer’s market right now, with prices and interest rates both remaining relatively low.

Even those content with where they live should look into refinancing their homes with a lower interest rate, he said.

Nation-wide, the average 30-year, fixed rate mortgage had a 4.45 percent interest rate in the third quarter of 2010, compared to 5.16 percent during the same period in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Prices are down, interest rates are down – it’s a golden opportunity to buy,” Fink said.

Fink and DeBord both agree that real estate in Sammamish and the rest of the Seattle area will likely get back to the prices that were seen before the recession, but how long it will take to get there is anyone’s guess.

“It will take a long time,” DeBord said. “We’ll certainly get there, but it’s not going to be five years. By the time there’s the next boom in the tech industry … people tend to forget these sorts of (recessions.)”

Fink is a bit more optimistic.

“This is America – prices go up,” he said. “People love to own their home … it’s the American Dream.”

Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.