The City of Sammamish will need to move quickly to change its municipal code after one bizarre loophole left a city residential neighborhood facing the prospect of living next door to a farm.

The Loree Estates is a neighborhood comprising 34 homes in the south-western section of the Plateau, just west of the intersection of Southeast 24th Street and 212th Avenue Southeast. Though the lots are relatively large, between 1 and 3 acres each, it is by any measure a residential neighborhood, and the people that live there enjoy their quiet and undisturbed community.

Until recently that is, when one of the property owners applied to the city for a permit to remove 43 large trees, and build a barn and outdoor area in order to keep two horses, two sheep, four milk goats and eight chickens.

That application for a farm on the 1.8-acre property was approved by the city, without a site visit, despite the homeowners association covenant which prohibits any activity which may inconvenience or disturb other residents.

Those residents felt that a small farm would definitely fit into that category, and appealed to the city to reconsider. At present there is no restriction in the city’s code regarding farm animals in residential neighborhoods, a hangover from the days when the city was governed by King County.

In the past seven days the city council has heard the grievances of the residents, and at Tuesday night’s meeting of the council heard them again when a group of about 10 Loree Estates homeowners pressed their case for the code to be changed.

It should be made clear that the owners of the property in question, considering the complaints of their neighbors, have shelved their plans for a farm, and have worked hard to maintain good relations in the Loree Estates.

But with the 43 mature Conifer trees already cleared, there are those who say much of the damage is already done. And they are blaming the city and a code that they say is outdated.

Resident Bob Stout told The Reporter prior to Tuesday night’s meeting that when the city was incorporated almost 10 years ago, existing King County regulations such as this one were imported into the new city’s code.

“We don’t have anything against our neighbors, we like our neighbors, but something needs to be done about a code that allows a farm in a residential community,” he said, noting the smell, noise and environmental degradation of such an operation. “(The code) should have been changed long before now. This has just brought it to the forefront.”

And to the forefront it is.

Seeking respite from the insistent public testimonies on Tuesday night, City Manager Ben Yazici said that city staff would move as quickly as they could to look into possible changes to the code.

“Any ordinance that has land use changes has to go through the planning commission,” he said, adding that he hoped to bring this to the agenda of their next meeting. “As a young city, this is one of things that until now we have had no experience with.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Barbara Stout summed up the feelings of those effected when she said “Sammamish needs a code that reflects the city it has become.”

But there are those that see the city’s failure to make a reasonable decision about the development at Loree Estates as evidence of a greater problem.

A number of residents said that when they contacted the city, urging someone to visit the site to better understand the context of the application, they were told that staff did not have the time or resources to do so.

Resident Gail Twelves said a number of factors should have “raised a flag” as to the complexities of the application, prompting a site visit.

“Number one, ambitious logging on a sensitive, steep slope, which runs down into a stream, which then runs into Lake Sammamish,” she said, listing what should have been concerns for the city. “Secondly, the addition of numerous farm animals. And thirdly, the city did not even ask if the applicant had the approval of the neighborhood architectural review committee. If they would have, they would have found out that they didn’t. Nonetheless, the trees are down.”

Nancy Hughes said that when city inspectors did come out to Loree Estates to review the site, she was told by one staff member “we’re really sorry, we should not have approved this.”

Twelves was one of a number of residents who said that the city needed to hire more staff in order to keep better track of such developments.

“Keep in mind that when we moved up here, we all wanted greater oversight,” she said.

Also of concern for the residents was that what they termed a “logging operation” should be allowed under a building permit, and the lack of consideration given to homeowners association covenants by the city.

Community Development Director Kamuron Gurol told The Reporter this week that it was common for such permits to be issued without a site visit, and added that council would decide if this code item needed revisiting.

“Right now we have a relatively liberal set of codes regarding the keeping of animals, and, by and large, with the exception of perhaps a noisy rooster now and then, it is not a frequent issue,” he said. “It raises the issue of compatibility, and it is up to the council if they want to pursue that.”