Help us make the City Council listen... Or hold them accountable.
We are concerned about the plan to build 15+ story buildings and add 2,000 housing units to the Town Center. This development would worsen traffic, overcrowd schools, and harm our natural environment.
Increased population means more road use, raising safety concerns during emergencies. Our schools, already full, may need to bus students to Redmond. Additionally, increased urbanization threatens the trees, lakes, and wildlife that define Sammamish.
Read more about why we urge the city council to reject this plan. Help protect Sammamish's character — sign this petition to preserve our quality of life.
Sammamish doesn't have the infrastructure to support all this growth, nor are there viable plans to build it. We're already failing our traffic concurrency. Our water and sewer system is already stressed, with the water district planning high cost expansions. There is no more room to build schools in our city,
Our roads are already crowded. The City's own studies show that our roads would be more congested than Paradise, California in an evacuation situation. And Paradise burned to the ground.
Our region is already beset by climate emergencies, earthquakes, windstorms and flooding. How are we going to get out?
The proposed 4,000 housing units in Town Center will create a significant increase in commuters as there are not enough local jobs to support the residents. Keeping the original plan of 2,000 housing units would help moderate that increase.
Photo credit Cory M. Grenier
Sammamish has trees, lots of them, and many are mature Douglas-firs, one of our state's native trees. The TC growth will be at the expense of the tree canopy those trees provide. We're going to lose our natural shade and trade it for a heat island. Also, the animals that depend on those trees, such as the native Douglas squirrel and the brown creeper, will lose their homes.
The Sammamish Town Center is being promoted as a destination for dining, shopping, and civic events, but parking will be limited to one space per housing unit, which may not be sufficient given the average number of cars per household.
The city council, in what looks like helping the developer reap more profits, is considering allowing 150' tall buildings in the Town Center. This is far taller than the trees and our neighboring communities.
See how Sammamish's Town Center Amendments compare to other local cities.
The amendment wants to put almost 400,000 square feet of retail in the Town Center. This is half the size of Bellevue Mall! Where are people going to park?
Case studies about the impact of the Town Center.
The document critically analyzes Sammamish's affordable housing policies, highlighting the disconnect between city officials' ambitions and the practical realities of the area. It argues that Sammamish, an affluent suburb with high housing costs and limited infrastructure, is ill-suited for significant affordable housing development.
Download and Read!
Read how one of our city's residents argues for an immediate growth moratorium in Sammamish, Washington, citing severe infrastructure failures, emergency service gaps, and manipulated data that jeopardize residents' safety and quality of life. Continued development without addressing these critical issues risks overwhelming the city's limited ingress/egress, overcrowded schools, and inadequate public transportation.
Download and Read!
Read what the former Mayor of Sammamish, Tom Odell, wrote in the Sammamish Comment about the changes the current City Council is considering and how far they've come since the early plans in 2007 and 2010.
Do you realize how different the current considerations are from the original concepts?
Read the Article!
The Sammamish City Council recently made a controversial decision to redirect funds originally intended for park improvements. This move has raised concerns among residents about the city's priorities and the impact on local infrastructure. Read more about the decision and its implications in this article from the new Sammamish Local News website: Sammamish City Council Redirects Parks Funds to Town Center Project.
Celia Wu's Article
Why does the City Council want 15-story towers and 4,000 housing units? In 2020, the City Council's Town Center plan called for buildings up to six stories and 2,000 housing units. It calls for a mix of cottages, townhouses, detached single and multi-family homes. No towers are mentioned. Why is the City Council trying to change this plan?
See page 87 for Housing
Read the 2020 PlanRead all the proposed changes in the in the agenda for the for the April 1st City Council meeting.
City Council Agenda
Sammamish is served by a minuscule amount of public transit. There is a hope that transit service will increase significantly with the construction of Town Center, but it's unlikely.
Town Center Transit?
This document explains the income-based qualifications for affordable housing in Sammamish, using the Seattle Metro Area Median Income (AMI) as a benchmark. It outlines income categories, associated housing programs, and provides examples of typical incomes in King County to illustrate eligibility.
Download and Read!Who are we and what do we stand for.
We are a coalition of 25+ bipartisan Sammamish residents (Democrats, Republicans. Independents, Progressives) and growing, committed to shaping a Town Center that is environmentally sustainable, fiscally responsible without regressively taxing fixed income residents to benefit developers and city council member’s personal agendas, and reflective of our community’s vision of remembering why we moved here:
Beautiful, lush forests and sparkling lakes, excellent schools, safe communities, backyards, trails, and parks where our children/grandchildren and pets can play, easy traffic, friendly, inclusive neighborhoods, and fantastic city services.
Many of us have lived here between 10 and 50+ years and have seen the damage that can happen when partisanship happens–when city council majorities swing too far to the right then far to the left. We are unified in our support of leaders that believe in compromise.
We believe in measured growth, but not without infrastructure. We want the Town Center that was promised to us in 2008, not the housing density boondoggle and financial disaster of 4000 housing units with the “opportunity” for retail and the pursuant gridlock and overcrowding that would come. We support leaders who put the interests of current residents first, while ensuring compliance with King County requirements and the city's development code.
Let the City Council know that you don't want 15+ story buildings and 4,000 housing units in our Town Center.
We plan to present this petition to prevent the approval of high rise buildings and excessive housing density in Sammamish Town Center.
