There were few surprises Tuesday night when the Sammamish City Council engaged in discussion on a possible moratorium, with talks of the surrounding issues appearing to have stalled until the council holds its retreat in January.
The council added moratorium consideration to Tuesday’s agenda after Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama requested a 60-day process of gathering public input and staff recommendations toward potentially establishing a moratorium across the city’s Town Center. Valderrama made the request during a study session last week.
The talks of a potential moratorium brought a wave of dissenting voices to Tuesday’s meeting. Nearly 30 people addressed the council during public input, with 15 specifically speaking against a possible moratorium.
Resident John Galvin commented the issue “dragged him out of retirement” for attending council meetings to discuss the Town Center and he implored the council to “put the pin back in the hand grenade.”
Clark Hartley, a resident since 2009, told the council the issue brought him off a Naval warship, the USS NIMITZ, so that he could address the issue.
“You’ve already given strict ordinances and strict zoning,” Hartley said. “If you could just follow those, we don’t need to use words like moratorium. We just need to follow the application process and get things done.”
City Manager Lyman Howard stated he reached out to Issaquah School District Superintendent Ron Thiele and Lake Washington School District Superintendent Traci Pierce, with neither expressing a need to enact a moratorium. He also reached out to Sammamish Plateau Water general manager Jay Krauss, who also didn’t express a need for a moratorium.
Howard commented that the Town Center plan took a decade and a half to come to life and he cautioned the council that a moratorium could derail the plan’s momentum.
He recommended the council “continue to work on planning efforts to include finding better ways to manage growth outside of a moratorium.”
Valderrama reiterated his recommendation Tuesday night, noting the Town Center plan was developed 12 years ago when the city had a smaller population, and he once again mentioned his concern regarding the city’s ability to keep up with growth.
“It’s something that keeps coming back to the council, that we need to be able to plan and ensure that we have the infrastructure that will safeguard our environment and preserve our character,” Valderrama said.
Valderrama didn’t find much support from the rest of the council. Councilmember Kathy Huckabay said as a senior member of the community looking to downsize but still remain in Sammamish, she was “very anxious” to see the Town Center move forward. Councilmember Bob Keller said he thought the council could come up with more effective ideas to address community concerns than a moratorium.
Councilmember Tom Hornish also expressed the need to move forward with the Town Center. Like she commented the previous week, Councilmember Christie Malchow said she didn’t believe putting a moratorium in the Town Center addressed community concerns “as a whole.”
Attending the meeting via phone from Chicago, Councilmember Tom Odell commented “… the idea of putting a moratorium just on Town Center, to me, is nuts because that’s the wrong place to do it.” He said should the council entertain a moratorium, he suggested it be over the entire city except the Town Center.
“At this point, I’m not ready to go ahead with a moratorium, but I’m close,” Odell said.
Mayor Don Gerend said he was supportive of continued studies looking at storm water and traffic, adding he was thrilled the Town Center was finally underway after the recession halted its progress. He suggested further conversation of those issues with city staff at the council’s January retreat, which Valderrama supported.
Malchow added the council was not done with the issue and was still gathering community feedback.
“The information that we’re getting still from the Virtual Town Hall, and I think we’re still rolling up the comments from the roundtable, we will process those,” she said. “The idea behind doing the roundtable and the Virtual Town Hall was not so that it would fall into a black hole.”
