One of our members did some research about Sammamish's Urban Forest Management Plan and this is what she found: The Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP) was adopted by the City of Sammamish in 2019. The plan contains a lot of information, particularly as it pertains to tree preservation in Sammamish. The UFMP serves as a policy guide for managing, enhancing, and growing trees in our city over the next 20 years.Key Goals of the UFMP The goals listed in the plan include: Promote a sustainable canopy cover in Sammamish. Improve oversight and enforcement of tree preservation and planting. Big Questions for the City Council Our member has identified the following questions for the city council regarding the implementation of the UFMP: How is the city measuring its progress with the plan? Is a road map in place, and is there any oversight, or has this project fallen by the wayside? Can the city provide an update? The last one that could be found is from 2021/2022, even though the plan st...

  You are not alone. It’s a complicated issue, and not everyone is trying to make things clearer. A few things you should know : The City Council says that your traffic is fine now and will be fine in 20 years. “no significant unavoidable adverse impacts are expected” Yet, during the Environmental Impact Statement process, nearly 400 people took the time to submit written concerns about traffic. No one was in favor of more traffic. The city only pays attention to the busiest hour between 7 and 9 AM and the busiest hour between 4 and 6 PM. If you are in clogged traffic outside of those hours, it doesn’t count. The City Council only pays attention to intersection delay. If you are sitting in a long line of traffic creeping along Sahalee, East Lake Sammamish, or Issaquah Pine Lake Road, it doesn’t count. Intersection delay is calculated, not measured. The estimated delays depend on values of parameters used for the software. Some of them are user choice. Despite concerns...

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 ...