In a definitive statement of its hopes for the future of Sammamish, the city council voted on Tuesday night not to consider an application from a group of landowners to increase the allowed commercial and residential density in one quadrant of the proposed Town Center.

The application to amend to the city’s Comprehensive Plan – within which the city’s Town Center Plan sets maximum densities in the proposed development – was submitted by BCRA Design on behalf of a group known as the SE Quadrant homeowners.

This group has been critical in the past of the city’s decision to limit commercial development in their zone, A3 in the city’s plans, to 90,000 square feet, stating that this low density allotment would not encourage developers to build nor landowners to sell their land.

Their proposal asked for a total allocation of up to 300,000 square feet of commercial space within the A3 quadrant, on the eastside of 228th Avenue SE between SE 8th Street and the road to Eastside Catholic.

What council was asked to decided on Tuesday night was not whether to allow that level of commercial density, but whether or not to begin a process of considering that level of commercial density, as part of an annual Comprehensive Plan revision.

The council voted not to consider a revision, 5 – 2. Councilors Nancy Whitten, Mark Cross, John James, Tom Odell and Michele Petitti voted against considering the SE Quadrant’s proposal. Mayor Don Gerend and council John Curley voted for considering the amendment.

Gerend said he believed the current density limits would stymie development of a Town Center, even when the nation emerged from the recession.

“We aren’t going to see a heart and soul in the city, the way it is now,” he said. “I feel this should be on the docket, to at least have it there to explore.”

Curley, too, did not say he necessarily believed such a density increase was a good idea, but that it was worth further discussion. He said it was important to give developers plenty of flexibility, and suggested that one way to encourage better development and allow for higher density was to increase the amount of bonus density units which reward developers for provision of certain amenities.

“Ninety thousand… it just doesn’t seem like enough, to me,” he said, referring to the current cap on commercial density in the SE Quadrant. With bonus units, that figure rises to 115,000, short of the 130 or 140,000 Curley suggested could make developers interested.

“I’d love to be able to see more flexibility. We know what we don’t want. The developers know how to make these things work. They have skin in the game.”

Opponents to any consideration of density increases cited a desire for Sammamish to retain its character – a bedroom community with little of the negative impacts that come with commercial development, such as increased crime, traffic, and further environmental stresses. They also expressed a desire to move forward with the plan as it is rather than subject other landowners to further delay.

“We’ve waited long enough,” said one property owner, representing a group of landowners in the NW Quadrant, adding that in that section there were 28 landowners, on 45 acres, “anxiously awaiting you to approve this Town Center plan.”

(Note: This man was not a property owner, but a real estate agent for John L Scott, Bill Stern, who is representing these homeowners. – Ed.)

The city has been much criticized for the time it has taken to make anything happen in the Town Center.

The conflict in ideas between the SE Quadrant group and the city has shown no sign of resolution over the past few years, and Tuesday night’s meeting was a good example of why that impasse will likely never be bridged.

It is essentially a matter of ideology. Both sides are right in their own arguments – if the city wants to increase the amount of sales tax revenue it captures and provide more employment opportunities on the Plateau, then it probably does have to allow for greater densities. However, if it is more concerned with preserving the environmental and social characteristics of a lower service, bedroom style community, then it needs to keep the densities low. The council’s decision on Tuesday night was a clear reflection of which it has chosen.

“They’ve killed to Town Center,” SE Quadrant landowner John Galvin said shortly following the 5 – 2 vote.

The initial Southeast Quadrant proposal had stated that an increase in density in their quadrant should be matched by a proportional increase in all the Town Center zones. This would have expanded Town Center capacity to about 1.4 million square feet of commercial development, well above the current cap of 600,000 which the city decided upon in 2008.

In a last moment alteration to its application, the Southeast Quadrant submitted a document to the councilors stating “the applicants acknowledge that other quadrants within the Town Center might also require a density increase to meet the demands of the market and economic realities,” but “it should be clearly understood that this application concerns only the SE Quadrant.”

An important element of whether the city needs to build more residences and provide more jobs in order to meet the growth targets mandated by King County and the WA State Government is identifying other areas outside the proposed Town Center that would be suitable for commercial and residential expansion. Several times during Tuesday night’s meeting, Councilor Mark Cross referred to the Pine Lake Shopping Center as being an ideal candidate for denser, more modern development, as it is next to a Park and Ride facility.

Cross hoped that by looking at jobs and houses expansion elsewhere, the city could prevent a need for inappropriate densities in the Town Center.