Being a landowner in the Sammamish Town Center is like falling down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world where logic does not apply.

After seven years of planning, 1.5 million spent on consultants, thousands of staff hours, Councilmember Mark Cross states: “I am particularly concerned about the idea that you (Mayor Gerend) think that it is essential for us to have a town center. I just don’t think that is true.” (Dec. 8, 2009)

This being said, Cross encourages fellow councilmembers not to waste time discussing the Town Center.

Feb. 16, 2010: Having declared the Town Center irrelevant, Cross proposes that the next city project should be a mixed-use subarea plan for the redevelopment of the Pine Lake Village and single family neighborhoods adjacent to the Park and Ride. Is it Cross’s intention to spend millions of dollars, destroy the property values of homes within the subarea, then declare that plan irrelevant as well?

Town Center landowners and developers tell the council that the Town Center Plan won’t fly and needs fixing. The most senior and experienced councilmember, Mayor Gerend, acknowledges “we aren’t going to see a heart and soul in this city with the plan the way it is now.”

In her unique rhetorical style, Councilmember Whitten presents her position:

“…lets get the Town Center built, let’s not go through further delays… what do we need to do to make the Town Center work… when we passed the Town Center plan we said it wasn’t going to be fixed in stone and we could come back and amend it… I want to see what we need to do and what will make it real.”

In other words she wants to stay with the plan as written, to try to make it work, and if nothing happens come back and fix it in two to three years.

“At this point in time,” she says, “I just want to bite the bullet and get going.”

John Galvin

Sammamish