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...