The Issaquah City Council Land and Shore Committee was not in favor of a development request by Bellevue-based Polygon Northwest to add 100 more units to the Issaquah Highlands at the Jan. 18 committee meeting.

Polygon is requesting to add 100 Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) certificates to its Westridge Development project, located between Northeast High Street and Fifth Place Northeast, just to the west of Safeway.

The addition of the TDRs would bring the total number of units in the development from 265 to 365, and would require the council to approve a major modification to the Issaquah Highlands Development Agreement.

TDRs, according to Director of Economic Services and Development Keith Niven, are “the exchange of zoning privileges from areas desired to be preserved, such as critical areas and open space, to areas better able to accommodate higher densities.”

The TDRs were purchased from Regal Bank and had originally been intended for Tiger Mountain’s Park Pointe, an urban village that was never developed, according to Niven.

To comply with the Issaquah Highlands 30 percent affordable housing requirement, Polygon proposes creating 25 units of affordable housing and a group home for five people with disabilities on a piece of city-owned land just west of Northeast Falls Drive and the Forest Ridge community. Niven told the Reporter that the city had previously set aside this land for affordable housing.

During a public hearing on the request at the Jan. 17 council meeting, seven residents came forward to give their disapproval of the request, expressing concern in particular with the placement of the affordable housing component.

A.J. McGauley explained that the homes will be too far away from public transit to be able to easily access it. The Issaquah Highlands Park and Ride is located on Highlands Drive Northeast.

“Those who will be living in the affordable housing … will be much more likely to depend upon transit,” he said. “I think it’s important to locate the affordable units as close to transit as possible.”

At the committee meeting the next day, Niven said that being near a transit center would not be necessary for the potential buyers of the proposed homes.

“The idea that the people who could afford these would not have cars is erroneous,” Niven said. He explained that the units would range in price from $240,000 to $434,000.

“People who can afford those, they generally have cars … they don’t necessarily need to live next to a transit center,” he said. He added that the income levels that the proposed houses are planned around “aren’t the low end.”

Mary Lynch and Connie Marsh both stated during the hearing that the city should be focusing on low-income housing instead of the proposed affordable housing.

“I really think we need more low-income, not just affordable [housing] … That is one of the things we really need to have,” Lynch said.

McGauley also did not want to see developers “carve off” affordable housing, noting that it is “important to integrate it” with other types of housing so as not to divide residents by income level.

“The segregation of the afffordable units into a kind of distinct site all by itself is not healthy for the community,” he stated.

The other speakers agreed with McGauley, and also emphasized how much more crowded all of the additional homes would make the Highlands and how this would increase traffic congestion.

“What’s lacking are parks and schools in that area and that’s a complicated problem,” David Kappler said. He also noted that a “group home does generate a little bit more traffic” due to the number of service workers.

“To increase the density without looking at a wholistic approach to infrastructure I think, is really wrong,” Lynch said.

Bernadette Curran questioned whether any criminal background checks had been done on the potential residents of the proposed group home. She said that she and other Forest Ridge residents would not feel safe if sufficient checks were not done.

A few did come out in support of the Polygon proposal. Fred Nystrom stated firmly that the affordable housing was “an example of [Polygon] continuing to put the community needs first” and that “they need to be respected.”

“To solicit money decades ago and have that benefit and then to deny or slow down or modify that permit is sort of the worst types of a bait-and-switch operation, which I don’t think is how the council likes to see themselves,” he said.

“I think some of our strengths in the Highlands are our density and also the mixed income levels that we have already in place that have really worked out well for us,” Lindsey Walsh said. However, she did state that the affordable housing “should be there on High Street, where it is closer to the transportation.”

The council members discussed the proposal at the committee meeting and decided to ask the administration to recommend that the proposal be denied.

“For me, it wasn’t affordable,” Council President Stacy Goodman said. She added, “I don’t think that that’s maybe the highest and best use of that property.”

Deputy Council President and Committee Chair Mary Lou Pauly said that she had driven to the affordable housing site and walked around.

“To me it looked like a very awkward mash-up to say that we would give land and put something on there that didn’t even look like a good fit,” she said.

“It just felt squished together. It didn’t seem to make sense,” she went on. “And I am significantly opposed to just providing the land.”

The matter will come before the full council again for a final decision at the Feb. 21 meeting. The public hearing will also continue at this meeting.