A World Word II veteran and retired Boeing test engineer, Irv Levin understands suburban communities by a way of history. His generation helped build them.

His perspective couldn’t find a greater contrast than Saj Sahay. Born in India and once a world traveler, he’s settled in nearby Klahanie with a high-tech job.

The two men, both members of Issaquah’s Planning Policy Commission, represent two contrasting perspectives of what should become of Central Issaquah, which is now dominated by single-story industry, concrete and parking.

Sahay and Levin are by no means alone in sharing their views on the commission. But they each represent lifestyles that are driving the PPC’s debate over how tall buildings should grow into the Issaquah skyline.

Levin doesn’t want to see anything above four stories. Nothing should block his view of the precious Issaquah Alps that first attracted him to the city.

He also doesn’t want the traffic that urban density brings.

For Sahay, it’s important to prevent more suburban sprawl. It’s hard on the environment to expand outward. It’s better to grow up, he says.

He favors going as high as 14 stories in some places.

It would hardly be a downtown Bellevue, but would provide an alternative to expanding deeper into the mountainside.

The commission’s final recommendation, a set of building and transportation regulations called the Central Issaquah Plan, will be set before elected officials for approval sometime next year.

The plan would set the course of the city’s development over the next 30-50 years.

Studies and charts aside, the heart of the debate isn’t a matter of what would work, but which lifestyles to champion.

Saj’s view: Live, work, play

Rattling off facts, Saj Sahay paces down Northwest Mall Street past an auto parts store and along a chain-link fence.

Barren parking lots make up about 70 percent of the area, there are few if any residents, and most of the steel buildings are single-story.

“There is no community here,” he says of the empty streets, before meandering across the road.

Had he his way, this would be the heart of the city – “a neighborhood of its own.”

Plans for a new I-90 overpass would connect the neighborhood to Costco’s headquarters. The corporation wants closer places for its employees to live, that message has been clear, he said.

In his ideal world, new townhomes would mix with apartments, condos and even a 14-story building or two.

The tallest buildings would be spread apart, as to not block the view of the mountains.

Don’t think about downtown Bellevue, think something closer to Mercer Island or Kirkland, Sahay reiterated. “I don’t want to be a Bellevue, because I think it’s very monolithic. It’s a lot of concrete.”

Unlike Bellevue, Issaquah has a high water table. Underground parking would have be built like a bath tub, which isn’t cost-effective, said Trish Heinonen, planning manager with the city.

Issaquah can’t hide stories underground, so parking garages would make up the second and third stories, she said.

In the CIP, restaurants, office space and retail would take up the ground floor. A green necklace of small parks and walking paths would connect the area.

The basic concept is residents could live, work and play all within the neighborhood. Families would only need one car.

It’s the new West Coast way, Sahay says.

It’s also a dream.

He’s remodeling his house to better fit his family of six in their Klahanie home, but he’d give it up for the chance to live in such a neighborhood, he said.

“I’ve lived that way in Europe. I lived that way in India,” he said. “If we achieve this, I would move here.”

Irv’s view: Two-car homes

Raised in New York’s Brooklyn in the 1930s, Irv Levin spent his whole childhood living, studying and playing in the city.

Like many soldiers returning from World War II, he embraced the automobile and suburban life.

The core idea behind the Central Issaquah Plan hinges on people’s willingness to walk most places, but that’s not possible in the suburbs, he says.

Levin’s defense of keeping Issaquah’s buildings short is a defense of the automobile lifestyle.

Families don’t walk to the grocery store, just like kids don’t walk to soccer practice, he said.

People won’t be able to walk to work, because Issaquah doesn’t have the high-waged jobs that are needed to own a home in Issaquah, he added.

The CIP is a way to manage growth by increasing density in one part of the city. For transportation to work, new residents would have to change their driving behavior, said Heinonen, a city planner. “It’s a new way of living.”

Levin disagrees.

“I think the government should react to people, not direct them,” he said. “I don’t want to change the way people behave. Hitler did it. Mussolini did it.”

A few years ago Levin, now 87, settled in a condo on the valley floor. He liked the slower pace of life, the mountainside.

“I don’t like the walls around me,” he explained, looking out the window and up at the tree tops.

There is nothing wrong with urban living, he said, but Issaquah isn’t the place for it. He doesn’t want to see buildings above four stories because they limit the views.

Density also causes traffic problems, he said.

He’s not interested in being another Kirkland or Mercer Island. He doesn’t want that much growth.

“Issaquah doesn’t have to be the place people move to,” he said, giving approval to expanding North Bend for more housing.

If not allowing buildings to go up to nine stories means people can’t move to Issaquah, he said. “I say, too bad.”

Legally speaking, there are things a city can do to stunt growth. However, it’s a free country, and landowners have a right to build, Heinonen said. “You can’t be a community that says we don’t want any more growth, period.”

If growth happens, it should be organic and unforced, Levin says.

Peering out the car window, he points to a new development near Issaquah Valley Elementary – three-story town homes.

They’re a bit high, but perfectly acceptable, he says. They don’t block the mountainside and there is space for two cars.

Want to sound off on this issue? Shoot us an e-mail, letters@isssaquah-reporter.com

Saj Sahay, once a world traveler and now an accomplished IT manager, brings a progressive urban approach to downtown Issaquah in the city’s discussion over the valley floor’s future. He stands on a road he hopes will be replaced with mixed-use condos and apartments. BY CELESTE GRACEY, Issaquah Reporter