Will our Town Center be a vibrant place for seniors--with “affordable housing,” other diverse housing options, walkability, accessible transit, and convenient shopping? As a Sammamish senior citizen, I hope so, but questions keep popping up. Senior citizen facilities—yes, but affordable? Merrill Gardens and Aegis are expected in the Town Center. But how many senior citizens would call these facilities “affordable?” And not all seniors need or want these types of facilities. “Affordable Housing”—how will seniors qualify? “Affordable housing” is the term for subsidized housing for those with incomes at or below 80% of the area median income. Our Town Center will have some affordable housing town homes and apartments. Many seniors who sell their homes are likely to have home equity income that could disqualify them from affordable housing. Those with less income might qualify, but will they want to live in apartment buildings with younger singles and young families? Maybe they would ...

The City Council has repeatedly said that Sammamish is required to have affordable housing. True. They have also repeatedly said that a 4000 unit Town Center is required to provide affordable housing. Not true. Sammamish has a Growth Management Act requirement to plan for, accommodate and enable affordable housing, but not just any affordable housing .  Sammamish has been allocated a target of 1549 units of Extremely Low Income Housing. The Draft Town Center Plan and Draft Code Amendment provide nothing for this housing that is not already in the Comprehensive Plan and current Municipal Code. Who qualifies for Extremely Low Income Housing? This category could include people making less than minimum wage, some part time workers and people with only government benefit income. Eligible income is less than $33,000 for one person. Household income can be approximately $4000 higher per person for larger households. Most of the potential tenants will need support services for disabilit...

Sammamish asserts that traffic delays at major commuting intersections are much shorter than Issaquah and Washington State report. It appears that the Sammamish consultants are not accurately stating traffic conditions. The city of Sammamish is embarking on a major change in direction for future development. A key element under current lively discussion is the revised Town Center Plan. Because it will have negative environmental impacts, the City is in the midst of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). Traffic is one of the two main problems addressed in the draft SEIS. Sammamish uses intersection delay as its only measure of traffic level of service (LOS). The traffic analysis in the draft SEIS includes very large tables comparing peak hour intersection delays for two alternatives to one tenth of a second at more than 60 intersections 20 years in the future! The DSEIS states “According to the analysis results, there are no new future deficiencies caused by the Sammam...

  The Votes Are In on the Sammamish Town Center Plan City Council Passes Action Alternative (4,000 units, 85’ buildings) Before the final vote was accepted, Councilmember Kent Treen presented three alternative motions: 1. A hybrid option that would keep the 2,000-unit cap. Councilmember Lam seconded the motion. After discussion, the Council voted 6–1 against approving it. 2. Two additional alternatives were also introduced by Councilmember Treen but did not receive a second and therefore did not move forward. At the July 15, 2025 Sammamish City Council meeting, the Council voted on the future of the Town Center. They were asked to select one of three proposed alternatives: Proposed Options: 1. No Action Alternative Keeps the current cap of 2,000 housing units. Likely results in mostly townhomes and fewer community amenities such as retail, restaurants, and civic spaces. 2. Action Alternative Allows up to 4,000 units with a mix of apartments and condos, plus retail, restaurant, and...

  Will transit reduce our traffic? Supporters of a bigger Town Center hope that denser development will attract more transit that commuters will use and will actually reduce our peak hour traffic. Is that likely? Consider the city of Shoreline. In many ways, it is a best case for transit. Approximately 25,000 residents work outside the city (2022). A strong majority probably work in Seattle. Sound Transit Link light rail provides excellent service for these potential customers. Shoreline has been emphasizing development within ½ mile of the Link stations and discouraging parking for new housing units. How well has it worked? In recent months, the average total Link boardings for weekdays at both Shoreline stations was 2200. This means that fewer than 10% of commuters choose this very convenient service. In Sammamish? Of course Sammamish will not have light rail. According to Sound Transit and King County Metro plans, it won’t even have a bus that runs to a major emplo...

  Currently more than 30,000 people commute from Sammamish to work. The major destinations are Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond. About one third travel north on East Lake Sammamish Parkway or Sahalee Way. All of them drive through the intersection of East Lake Sammamish Parkway and Redmond Way (SR 202). How do you like that intersection? The new Marymoor Village transit station is ½ mile from this intersection and is destined to become a magnet for more traffic. In addition, Redmond officially plans to grow the area surrounding the transit station. A lot. Building up to 12 stories with up to 70% lot coverage. Redmond plans to add more than 21,000 housing units during the next 25 years. A “significant portion” of them will be within this area. With this plan, the Level of Service at the intersection of East Lake Sammamish Parkway and Redmond Way (SR 202) is expected to be F . Expect this to impact Highway 520 as well. Currently Redmond rates the Level of Service for 520 du...

 Is 4000 housing units in Town Center really a cap? Spoiler alert: No . Except for traffic and housing expense, Sammamish is a nice place to live. It is almost certain to grow. Today there are approximately 69,000 people in Sammamish living in approximately 23,000 housing units. The debate today appears to be about whether Sammamish should add 2000 vs 4000 housing units in the Town Center, but there is much more going on. The proposed amendment will change the current zoning control of density to Form Based Code (FBC). FBC as proposed has no limit on density except for building height and setback. This would allow the capacity of Town Center to be much larger than has been discussed. How much larger? According to the 2024 Sammamish Comprehensive Plan, Town Center is labelled with a density target of 50 – 100 units per acre under the proposed amendment. The plan lists the current allowed density as 20 – 40 units per acre. This would be a big change. It would be great if ...

    Anna Yorba One of the arguments used in Sammamish's 2025 Town Center Plan and Code Amendment Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to support increased population in the Town Center is quietly embedded in the middle of Sammamish's 2024 Comprehensive Plan as the following policy: "LU 10.4. Pursue PSRC (Puget Sound Regional Council) Regional Growth Center designation." A Regional Growth Center is defined as having dense existing jobs and housing, high-quality transit service, and planning for significant growth. The Draft SEIS states: "The City of Sammamish will pursue RGC status for the Town Center in the future as laid out in the City's 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update. This status prioritizes Town Center for consideration in funding allocated through the PSRC's planning processes, including grants for transit improvements, multimodal network upgrades, and infrastructure projects to support housing and job growth." It should be noted t...