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...

    If you commute on the central stretch of 228 th Ave, the city has good news for you. The City Council proposes to increase the number of people in Town Center from the current approximately 600 to more than 8000. The intersection of SE 4 th St and 228 th Ave SE is the meeting point of the two corridors through the Town Center and is within one mile of all these new residents. Most of these new commuters will travel through this intersection. The City states that your average delay at this intersection, even with all of these additional cars, will be 20 seconds. Quite impressive, especially since the average delay in 2024 was 21 seconds.