The Issaquah City Council Land and Shore Committee received some of its requested analysis on the proposed Issaquah Highlands development by Bellevue-based Polygon Northwest at its March 2 meeting.

Polygon is requesting to add 100 Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) certificates to its Westridge development, located just west of Safeway betweeen Northeast High Street and Fifth Place Northeast. This would bring the total number of units in the development from 265 to 365 and would require a major modification to the Issaquah Highlands Development Agreement.

Polygon’s proposal also includes a request to place 25 affordable housing units, as well as a group home for five people with disabilities (treated as five housing units) on Tract D, a piece of city-owned land set aside for affordable housing just west of Northeast Falls Drive and the Forest Ridge community, to fulfill the Highlands’ 30 percent affordable housing requirement.

At the Feb. 21 council meeting, the council had postponed making a decision on whether to grant or deny Polygon’s request so that a more thorough analysis could be done of the Highland’s infrastructure and ability to support the additional housing units.

Keith Niven, the city’s director of economic development and development services, gave committee members a rundown of the impact the additional residents would have on the wet utilities — water, sewer, stormwater — in the Highlands.

“The additional TDRs are really irrelevant from a stormwater standpoint,” he said, and also added that “sewer … was deemed to be adequate.”

The water analysis was not quite as straightforward, but did not present an impediment to the development. Niven explained that another reservoir would need to be built if the development proposal is approved. The city is looking to build the 297-foot-elevation reservoir at the bottom of the hill below Swedish Issaquah. The owners of the TDR properties would pay an additional fee to help offset the cost of the new reservoir.

“This basically is saying that, in the city’s opinion, there is adequate water, sewer and stormwater,” he summarized.

Niven said that an analysis of the Highlands’ traffic infrastructure was currently underway and would be presented to Land and Shore at the April 6 meeting.

The city is looking at five different public-opinion-based options for the affordable housing component of the proposal: 30 affordable housing units in Tract D, 30 affordable units in Tract D and nine affordable units in the Westridge development, building the affordable housing in the Westridge area, doing a property swap so that some of Polygon’s TDRs would go on Tract D and the affordable units would go on a piece of land in Westridge equal to the size of Tract D, and having Polygon just pay a fee in lieu of building affordable housing.

Councilmember Paul Winterstein highlighted the importance of having a chance to build affordable housing.

“When there’s a builder who’s willing to build affordable housing … we should look at those as very valuable opportunities and not miss them,” he said.

During public comment on the matter, Steve Pereira stated that he favored the option to trade properties, but was not sure the two pieces of land were equal, as Tract D “is a view lot” and “has the potential for a higher retail value.”

He also expressed that he wanted to see a mix of different kinds of affordable housing units, rather than just single-family homes.

“I think there’s a larger need than just one house per person,” he said. “We have the opportunity to build a higher volume of housing than one house per person to meet that need.”

David Kappler said that he did not see a group home as equal to five housing units, stating, “I don’t like that math.”

“I like having this conversation about all of the opportunities,” Connie Marsh stated. She said that she preferred the affordable housing to be near the park and ride on Highlands Drive Northeast, which is closer to the Westridge development than to Tract D.

Public commentators have brought up the affordable housing tract’s distance from public transit centers at past meetings, and have said that people living in affordable housing tend to be more likely to rely on buses.

Deputy Council President Mary Lou Pauly thanked the city and Polygon for its work on the analysis, noting that it “really helps facilitate a great discussion.”

Council President and Committee Chair Stacy Goodman agreed.

“It gives us a range of things. It gives us options, it gives Polygon options, it gives us something to contemplate,” she said. “I would say that the only thing that’s missing here is a little bit more analysis that helps make a recommendation. Which one of these is best for the community and why?”

Pauly said that she also wished to see more discussion and analysis of each of the separate options.

“Each one of these options is a different animal … so letting us know what these costs are to the developer, [what the] costs are to the city versus the number of units there are and where you get them would be really helpful,” she said. “But I am thrilled with this first list, this is great progress.”

The Land and Shore Committee is comprised of Goodman, Pauly and Winterstein.