A group of residents in a Sammamish neighborhood are feeling some of the adverse effects of residential development within the city.

And they say that city staff are not listening to their complaints and concerns.

In the streets to the south of Beaver Lake Park, a development by the Burnstead Construction Company is causing headaches for a number of the existing homeowners, some of whom are claiming that vibrations from the construction site are cracking their walls and damaging their property.

Burstead is developing a site to the south of Beaver Lake Park, a site that will eventually contain about 75 homes.

First, however, the plat is being made ready for residential development — roads and curbing and being laid down, and soil is being filled in and compacted to provide a solid base for building.

It is this compaction that is troubling the nearby residents, who are members of the Beaver Lake Park Homeowners Association.

Resident Mike Anderson said recently that the developer was using equipment that was shaking houses “regularly and seriously — with damage.”

Anderson said that the association was considering legal action, given that they felt their approaches to both the developer and the city were being ignored.

“Our entire neighborhood (has been) having to put up with a noise nuisance for the last 18 months,” he said. “Both the developer and city are ignoring us.”

Resident Susan Johnson described the shaking of the earth when compaction work was being done as “unbelievable.”

“When pictures constantly fall off walls, and dishes literally move in the cabinets, someone should be responsible for damages,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I will be asking for my blinds to be cleaned (I spent several days cleaning them late summer when I painted my entire house), and they are dirtier now than when we moved here 2 years ago. I will also be asking for my windows to be cleaned, and a few cracks and pops (to be repaired) as well.”

As well as the vibrations from the compacting machine, what bothers the residents most is the noise of the construction.

“Waking up to the reverse beeping sound of trucks every morning, except some Saturdays and Sundays, at 7 a.m. is very irritating,” Johnson said. “But that I can understand. What I think is rediculous is being able to work until 8 p.m. Monday to Friday. There are three surrounding neighborhoods with little children, whose bedtimes are between 7 and 8 p.m.”

“After 6 p.m. should be a quiet time to relax with family, have dinner and a relaxing story time — not listening to trucks beeping and other miscellaneous construction noises.”

Both the city and the developer recognize that the residents have had to deal with some inconvenience during the construction.

“I feel sorry for the people,” said City of Sammamish Construction Inspector Jack Dompier. “But unfortunately there is not much they can do, except to hope for good weather so the work finishes faster.”

He said that any damage to property as a result of the construction was a matter for the developer and the residents, not to the city.

Dompier said he had received about a dozen complaints from the residents, most of which were about compaction vibrations, with some about the noise of reversing vehicles.

“There was a great deal of vibration (during compaction work), for about 8 to 10 hours a day. They were compacting 130,000 square yards of fill material into 6 foot lifts.”

“It can feel like an earthquake, the vibrations roll like a wave in the water.”

Dompier said that he doubted whether the construction work would have been responsible for substantial damage to the nearby houses.

“Cracked walls, peeled paint, cracked nail pockets — I have had that in my home. Over time, it becomes a very grey area, when trying to go back and get a contractor to go back and make repairs.”

But Dompier said he had paid close attention to the Beaver Lake site, and Burnstead had done all that was required of them by city regulations.

Overall I would say that the developer has a good working relationship with the citizens,” he said. “Like I said, I feel sorry for them, but as I try to explain, when their houses were built, they had neighbors too.”

President of the Steve Burnstead Construction Company, Leo Suver, said this week that his company had made extra efforts to communicate with nearby residents because of the proximity of houses to the development.

“The new neighborhood is bordered on all four sides by residents,” he said. “We have been in contact with these residents for two years, and have arranged meetings with the neighbors to explain what we are doing.”

Suver said that he had received “lots of complaints,” but that he had called back and addressed every one.

“It’s the noise,” he said. “But the majority of people have been understanding. Information is the key to everything — once you explain to them what your schedule is and talk to them about the guidelines, most of the residents are okay.”

Suver said that the City of Sammamish had strict construction guidelines, and that his company and the contractor had been diligent in staying within those guidelines, even exceeding them.

“We never worked till 8 p.m. There may have been a few days when there was still being done at 6,” he said.

Suver announced that the majority of the groundwork on the property had been completed, and that they expected to begin construction of the homes this week.