Skip Rowley’s plan | Long-time developer has a vision for part of downtown Issaquah, but some wonder, ‘why the rush?’

When Issaquah wanted a new library on Front Street, it got developer Skip Rowley’s vote. When it wanted a new community center, it got his money.

Now the city wants to redevelop its valley floor, marked by sprawling parking lots, and it has turned to Rowley’s vision of high-density and mixed-use buildings.

He wants City Council to OK a plan to redevelop 78 acres he owns. And, he wants the council to do it six months before it approves the wider-reaching Central Issaquah Plan, which would shape downtown development over the next 30 years.

The plans share the same vision, but as details in Rowley’s agreement come out, some are beginning to question whether it protects the environment and low-income families as the framers of the CIP first envisioned.

Mary Lynch, who helped draft the CIP, is among a few that worry Rowley is pushing for quick passage of his agreement to avoid more restrictive codes in the CIP plan.

No one can say for sure, because the CIP is still under review.

While city planners are pushing their Dec. 19 deadline for the Rowley Agreement, council members have been scrambling to understand the plan and how it would affect the environment.

In responding to councilmember questions, Rowley’s message has been clear: his family can be trusted with a more flexible plan of its own.

“We’ve done a lot of things to make this a better community,” Rowley says. Behind him several tall windows look out from the Issaquah office to a private park dedicated to his mother, Pat. “We are attached.”

For some, trust in the family isn’t enough.

The agreement is written for the land, not the family, said Tola Marts, a city councilmember who chairs the land and shore committee. “We’re setting up a pretty extraordinary agreement for a unique developer, and I want to make sure the public benefit is clear, because, quite frankly, people’s plans change.”

The Rowley plan allows for up to 4.4 million square feet of housing, commercial and retail space. It could include up to 1,700 housing units. The tallest buildings can be 12 stories, if they’re built LEED certified.

First In

While the city would get millions from the agreement, its interests go deeper than Rowley’s pockets. His 78 acres can be developed in a way that is more cohesive than any other property. It could set the stage for development for the rest of central Issaquah.

For Rowley, creating a separate development agreement is important because it gives his company certain sureties over the next 30 years. It also allows the city to be more sensitive to what’s financially feasible for Rowley.

There are no advantages to going first, he says, because the plans are parallel. “Why wait?” he asks.

When Lynch first heard about the Rowley Agreement, she thought the CAP would guide it, but now she’s afraid the opposite could happen.

“What’s with the rush,” she said. “He’s pushing, because he’s afraid of what’s coming out with the codes.”

Parts of Rowley’s plan, written by consultants, have already been integrated into the CAP.

The CAP task force envisioned more low-income housing, so people could afford to work and live in the city. It also had hoped to do more for the environment by using complicated Transfer of Development Rights, she said.

TDRs allow builders to transfer development rights from one piece of property to another. The land without development rights are thus preserved.The Rowley plan doesn’t use TDRs.

The costs of TDRs are prohibitive and requiring them would kill any plans Rowley Properties has to build structured parking, said Kari Magill, who is transitioning into running the company for her father, Skip.

The Rowley plan does have some provisions for low-income housing. The developer would either need to build 100 units of workforce housing or lease land to someone who will.

The Environment

When his father purchased land on the valley floor, Skip remembers Tibbetts Creek was deep and loaded with fish. Over the years, he watched silt from coal mines raise the creek, turning the waterway into little more than a drainage ditch.

The problem climaxed when the river flooded in 1990, covering the valley floor in water. Rowley decided it was time to fix the creek. For 11 years he worked with several agencies to get more money to expand the I-90 culvert and restore the creek.

Today, Tibbetts Creek has taken shape again; deer have returned. However, Rowley’s development and a road still butt up against the creek. And, Marts says, the science is clear that Tibbetts needs a 100-foot buffer to be healthy again.

Complicating any effort to create the buffer is a major sewage pipe that runs along the east side of Tibbetts. Rowley’s property line runs along the west side of the creek.

Moving the sewage line is near impossible, and moving Tibbetts would mean pushing the creek onto someone-else’s land.

“The Rowleys inherited a tough situation,” Marts said.

They can’t be forced to buy the land across the creek anymore than the landowners can be forced to sell it. The debate, then, is what provisions can Rowley Properties make if they’re unable to purchase the Mull property and move the creek.

Environmentalists also challenge plans to put in a storm drain that would flow into Lake Sammamish. The pipe would have filters to prevent silt from making it to the lake, but property owners have seen too many botched stormwater programs to trust the plan.

Environmentalists want a more natural approach, using the creek to drain the water and the wetlands to help filter out silt and pollutants.

Whether the creek gets a buffer or Issaquah gets a more vibrant community doesn’t just hinge on the plan, but on whether the Rowley family can afford to develop at all.

“We don’t have to do anything,” Rowley said, mentioning his many tenants. “That’s the point people are missing.”

Celeste Gracey can be reached at 425-391-0363, ext. 5052.