Sammamish Council ups commercial space in Town Center Plan

By WENDY GIROUX

Sammamish Reporter

Someday the Sammamish Town Center may include as much as 600,000 square feet of commercial space, City Council members decided in a marathon meeting Tuesday.

Five council members voted to approve an increase from 400,000 to 600,000 square feet of commercial space; Council members Kathleen Huckabay and Nancy Whitten abstained.

The council was working its way through proposed changes to the Town Center Plan, which is an amendment to the city's Comprehensive Plan. The Town Center Plan has been in the works for about four years, with many meetings by citizen committees, the Planning Commission and now the City Council. At the end of more than five hours of discussion Tuesday, council members shortly after midnight decided to delay decisions on the remaining proposals and adoption of the overall plan to a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 9 at City Hall.

In opening remarks, council members and the mayor said it was a momentous occasion.

"I'm really excited to reach this process," Huckabay said. "I've definitely had a vision of a Town Center."

She said that the Fourth on the Plateau celebration last year and new Farmers Market this year have been a great start toward building more of a sense of community.

Council member Michele Petitti said she would like to see the city make a financial contribution at some point to help get the Town Center started. Petitti also expressed concerns about getting affordable housing built within the Town Center.

Deputy Mayor Don Gerend talked of change on a large scale outside of Sammamish — from national politics to global warming to the rise in gas prices.

"Sammamish must change along with the world. There's no other option," Gerend said.

If the Town Center is planned well and built accordingly, it can help Sammamish residents reduce their vehicle miles traveled, increase the diversity of retail and commercial and absorb growth, he said.

"I'm asking for the council to think bold tonight," Gerend concluded.

Council member Mark Cross, who is also a planner for the city of Bellevue, said Sammamish has no choice but to change its land use policies.

"This (plan) will allow us to strike a better balance" between using land well and creating a sense of community, Cross said.

Council member Jack Barry said he considers the Town Center "an opportunity to dream."

He stressed the range of comments that council members have heard from residents — from those who wanted the city to stay as it was decades ago to those who are championing vast change.

"We have listened carefully," Barry said.

In the end, though, Sammamish is required to absorb a portion of the growth predicted for the Puget Sound area, he said.

"Be assured, no one wants to take on our share," Barry said.

Mayor Lee Fellinge rounded out the opening remarks, emphasizing that the Town Center Plan is at an overall planning level and that more specific work won't occur until staff members start to compile zoning and development regulations.

"We know that growth will happen, even if we sometimes wish it wouldn't," Fellinge said.

Community Development Director Kamuron Gurol led the council through a lengthy but careful process of examining proposed changes from the Planning Commission, council members and city residents.

"There's no shortage of good ideas in the city of Sammamish, and they've all been presented for you here tonight," Gurol said.

In addition to the decision to increase the cap on commercial space to 600,000 square feet, the other key issue before the council was whether to allow mixed use development on both sides of 228th Avenue Southeast or confine it to the west side as proposed by the Planning Commission.

At the end of the discussion, they did neither.

Council members settled on a compromise of sorts, which will allow retail-focused mixed use on the west side and office-focused mixed use on the east side. They also noted that the primary concentration of retail will be anchored by the "civic center" of City Hall and the coming new library — and extend north of the Sammamish Commons on the west side of 228th. Those ideas were approved 7-0.

Other approved amendments included:

• Civic structures will be allowed in mixed use areas if they are complementary in nature and add to the sense of "gathering place."

• Single-family housing developments will not be allowed in the "A" zones east or west of 228th. It will be allowed in the "B" zones. (To see the original map of the proposed land use zones, visit www.ci.sammamish.wa.us. Click on "Town Center" on the left and then click on "Town Center Plan Chapter 4" and go to page 5.)

• A fifth zone, "E" was added, which will allow single-family residential homes and essentially put land on "reserve" until the zoning is changed for future development. An "L"-shaped piece of property on the northwest corner of 228th and Southeast Eighth Street was adopted as "E."

• "B" zones will have a minimum density of eight dwelling units per acre.

• Allocations of commercial space: The "A-1" core area in the northwest quadrant may have up to 200,000 square feet of commercial space; the "A-2" zone in the northeast quadrant may have up to 90,000 square feet of commercial space; the "A-3" zone in the southeast quadrant may have up to 90,000 square feet; the proposed Liu/Lynette development in the "A-4" zone just north of City Hall may have up to 70,000 square feet of commercial space; the "A-5" Arbor School property may have up to 20,000 square feet of commercial space. All developers may have the potential to "earn" additional commercial space through use of incentives, up to a total of 130,000 square feet for the Town Center.

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