For the second time this election season, the 2017 Issaquah mayoral candidates engaged in a friendly candidate forum, hosted by the Issaquah Highlands Council on July 19 at Blakely Hall in the Issaquah Highlands.

And two of the topics that had dominated the first candidate forum that the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce hosted last month — traffic and development — once again were at the forefront of the conversation for the three candidates.

The hopeful candidates — Issaquah City Council Deputy President Mary Lou Pauly, Councilmember Paul Winterstein and business owner Claude Blumenzweig — started off proceedings by introducing themselves in a 60-second summary.

Winterstein, a longtime resident, described falling in love with the beautiful landscape of Issaquah at 23, and said, “I’m running for mayor because I wanna to make sure we leave an Issaquah to our children that’s as special, as vibrant and as caring a community as it is today.”

Pauly took a slightly less optimistic route, stating, “I really think things have gotten out of control — traffic and growth … We’ve lost control with what’s going on with growth in the town, what’s going on with traffic. We’re following a plan that was written 20 years ago.”

“While it’s still a great place to live, we are not solving our problems,” she emphasized.

Blumenzweig, too, said that he “love[d] this little town,” but pointed to “the overgrowth of the city” and “wasteful spending” as problematic.

“Coming into this arena is brand new for me, but I promise you I will do a good job, I will work hard for the city and I will fix a lot of these things with end results,” he said.

The increasing density of Issaquah, particularly the Highlands, was the first hot topic laid before the candidates. The recent decision by the council to amend the Issaquah Highlands Development Agreement to allow Polygon NW to transfer 100 Transfer of Development Rights to the Highlands has had some Highlands residents concerned that the area is growing too full.

Pauly, who was one of two dissenting votes in the decision, stated that she believed the council had made the wrong move in allowing the density to increase. While she said that the council had smart plans in place for growth, she stated that the way in which “we have completely let you down as a community is how we have executed those plans.”

“I commit to no increased density,” Pauly said firmly.

Pauly said that she would “commit as mayor” to making a proposal stating that the Highlands’ density should never get any larger than it is right now.

“There should be no [TDR] receiving sites up here and there should be no more density. Period,” Pauly said.

Blumenzweig pointed to the increased congestion caused by the growing density, and suggested putting in a larger moratorium that would apply to more developments than the current moratorium, because “wherever there’s land, they’re gonna build on it and it’s gonna get approved.”

“I think that we should put in a bigger moratorium, stop some of these buildings, look at our infrastructure, fixing that first,” he said.

Blumenzweig said that the moratorium on certain development approved by the council last September has not been very useful because so much development is already in the works.

“I don’t think the six months have done anything because all of these permits have already been approved,” he said.

Winterstein said that he would “support a policy to remove the Highlands as a receiving area” for TDRs.

He said that while he had voted in favor of the Polygon decision, he had only done so because a traffic analysis done by the city showed that the Highlands had adequate infrastructure to support the additional families.

He explained that the TDR program is good because it preserves open space. In the Polygon case, the TDRs had kept the Park Pointe area free of development.

“That was a very difficult question — it actually put density against the preserving of open space,” Winterstein said.

When it came time to discuss Issaquah’s much-bemoaned traffic difficulties, Blumenzweig, who has experience with Downtown Issaquah traffic from 11 years of owning his Front Street wine bar, Vino Bella, said that “traffic downtown is so bad, it’s like you can’t even get through it.”

“We created these problems by allowing all of these housing developments to go up … These are all self-inflicted problems,” Blumenzweig said.

He noted that one day he had counted 15 semi trucks driving down Front Street, using this as evidence that the council’s decision to reroute truck traffic outside of Olde Town has not been successful.

For long-term solutions, Blumenzweig suggested studying the stoplights in town and re-calibrating the lights.

According to Blumenzweig, the only strategy that will fix traffic congestion is partnering with other cities in the region. His top transportation projects as mayor, which he would work regionally to complete, would be widening roads, such as Front Street, the Issaquah-Hobart Road and State Route 18.

“Issaquah is not gonna be able to do this by itself,” he said. “We’re gonna have to have help from other areas … outside of the community.”

Pauly disagreed with this regional outlook.

“We need to do some of this ourselves,” she stated. “We have to stop waiting for other people … they’re not coming.”

Pauly said that she was disappointed the traffic bond on last year’s ballot failed, but noted that she had gotten a cheaper alternative to one of the projects in the bond — an improved Maple Street/Target/Trader Joe’s intersection — passed by the council.

Two other bond projects — the Providence Point intersection and Newport Way Northwest from State Route 900 to Southeast 54th Street — also need to top the city’s to-do list, she said.

“We’ve been talking about [Providence Point] for 10 years … That is very doable, we just have to get that done,” Pauly said.

Finally, she said that Newport Way Northwest between State Route 900 and Southeast 54th Street needs to be improved as soon as possible.

In terms of long-term projects, Pauly would like to join the southeast coalition of King County cities to fix regional thoroughfares, such as State Route 18 and State Route 169, to alleviate some of the regional congestion from Front Street, which sees 30,000 cars a day.

Winterstein agreed with Providence Point and Newport Way being high priorities. He noted that “we have to explore other ways to fund these projects,” and pointed to a transportation benefit district, which could charge drivers fees when they renew their license tabs, as a way to raise funds.

To cut down on drivers on the road, Winterstein would like to promote transit centers beyond just Downtown Issaquah. Ultimately, he said, it’s about “the choices that we make,” and people may want to consider alternative modes of transportation, such as busing, walking and biking.

Winterstein’s long-term project of choice would be widening State Route 18 and the Issaquah-Hobart Road.

“If the county can make some changes and unplug [Issaquah-Hobart Road] … then that’s a good thing,” he said.

In light of Issaquah’s recent issues with water contamination and tree removal, the candidates were asked how they would support the environment while in office.

Water cleanliness is “absolutely a top priority,” Winterstein said.

“There [are] works in place to make sure that we shall never compromise on the quality and the cleanliness of the water that we serve,” he assured the audience, referring to the city’s $1 million water filtration system.

To keep the hillsides natural, Winterstein said the city will need to “find ways to accommodate [newcomers] inside our cities.”

“We’re right on the border of this urban growth boundary … As more people come to this area, we’re gonna have to find ways to accommodate them inside our cities,” he said.

“We don’t have a stewardship plan right now,” Pauly said. “As mayor, I will make sure that we have a watershed stewardship plan.”

In terms of trees, Pauly said, “We can do better.”

“You are seeing trees come down at a record rate, and it’s disturbing,” Pauly said.

She proposed stricter ordinances on clearing and grading trees so that Issaquah becomes known as “the toughest place to take trees down.”

Blumenzweig responded that he was “not totally aware of what they’re doing within the city” on environmental issues, and opted to pass on this question.

The candidates next discussed public safety, as the Highlands neighborhood has become known for its troubles with car prowls and speeding.

“I believe we need more officers … but we don’t have enough money,” Blumenzweig said. He pointed to the use of money on things such as beautifying Olde Town Issaquah, and suggested that this money would be better spent on law enforcement.

“I believe there’s better uses of our money, rather than putting it into certain things Downtown Issaquah … I believe that we should be spending some of that money to hire more police officers,” he said.

Pauly said that she had had her car broken into twice in the past year.

First and foremost, she would like to see more “data and dashboards where you can see crime rates, theft rates” and other such data easily.

“I will commit as mayor to making that information available to the public,” she said. “We have it, we just haven’t shown it to you.”

Winterstein said that his “family has also been victimized several times over the years,” and noted how much of a “disturbing process to go through” it is.

He said that Issaquah has the lowest crime rate on the Eastside.

“We will not compromise public safety … That will remain priority #1,” he said.

Winterstein encouraged people to call police, to speak up at City Council meetings and to let the city know if there is a safety problem.

“That’s another way that you can help us — making calls to the city … make some noise,” he said.

The final topic centered around the rapidly-growing Issaquah School District and its difficulties in finding more land for schools to accommodate all of the new students.

Pauly said that kids are being bused out of the Highlands neighborhood “at record rates.”

“We have a complete and utter deficit of schools up here … I’d like to call this a crisis,” Pauly said, calling on the need for another school in the Highlands.

“The school district has the money — what they don’t have is the land.” She said that discussions between the district and the city need to be public.

Winterstein agreed with the need for public dialogue between the city and district.

“Our children are our future,” Winterstein said. “Any compromise in our ability to provide for your families and for your children’s education is not tolerable.”

“There is some dialogue between the city and the school district. Is there enough? No, there’s not enough,” he added.

Blumenzweig suggested building schools and infrastructure before all of the new development goes in.

“We always build and then we think about it afterwards … We first have to evaluate what we’re gonna do,” Blumenzweig said.

“We need to make sure that we look at and evaluate, then execute,” he reiterated.

The candidates closed with 60-second summaries of their outlook and their mission if elected to the mayor’s seat.

“We are about to start a new trip together … I can see the Issaquah that you want to live in,” Pauly said. She added that it’s “time for some new ideas, the old ones aren’t working.”

In contrast to Pauly’s use of words such as “crisis,” Winterstein said, “I don’t feel that we’re in a bad, bad place as recently characterized,” and noted that he hears “hope in [constituents’] voices.”

“They hope that we preserve the natural setting around us and within our parks, they hope that the new people who are coming embrace our diversity, embrace our quality of life … and they hope that we work regionally with partners on transportation,” he said.

“As a small business person, I have a lot of care,” Blumenzweig said, adding, “I am the newcomer … and I will work very, very hard, I will ask questions and get the answers and make sure I have tangible results with them.”