Members of the City of Sammamish Planning Commission have identified what they feel are flaws in the city’s Town Center plan, and are considering suggesting the council make a number of significant changes to the plan and its regulations.

One of the key issues being debated at the Planning Commission level is the council’s density limits – another is the lack of public transit infrastructure in or near the proposed center.

Like almost all planning issues in the city, the two are inextricably linked – increasing the size and density of development on the Plateau will have a direct impact on the accessibility of transportation networks to move greater numbers of people around.

At the Nov. 12 meeting of the seven commissioners, concern about one lead immediately into a long and involved conversation about the other.

With the practicality of the council imposed limits on development density coming increasingly under scrutiny from those close to the Town Center planning process, at least one commissioner is on the record as saying the current limits make it impossible for the city to achieve what it wants to in this defining development.

Commissioner Stan Bump, who owns property within the Town Center boundaries, excused himself from the chamber prior to the discussion.

“The math just doesn’t add up,” said commissioner Scott Hamilton. He was referring to council’s system of incentives for developers to provide affordable housing beyond the required minimum of 10 percent of units. The theory is, developers provide more affordable housing, then they get permission to build more market value retail and residential units, maximizing their returns.

Though the planning commission recognizes it is not invested with the power to make changes to the Town Center codes that are the core principals of the development, the idea of increased density is one that increasingly crops up in their deliberations.

It was Hamilton who lead the discussion that followed, one in which all the members contributed significant ideas.

The central idea was: if we are even going to look at increasing the density of the Town Center development, we need a better plan for how people are going to travel to and from it. In short, despite the traffic difficulties on and around the Plateau, there is nothing in the current Town Center plan that promotes the construction of a transit hub.

“I have been on the record many times as saying that the Town Center plan contains a major flaw, by omission, of any Transit Oriented Development,” Hamilton began. “One of the challenges the city faces is that we are an island. We don’t have I-90 to help us relieve traffic, like Mercer Island does. If there is a suggestion that we adjust the plan upward, then we need to have a Transit Oriented Development.”

He added that there were already significant problems with accessibility at both the north and south ends of the Plateau, and these would only intensify in the face of development.

“The Town Center plan needs to have a dedicated policy that promotes TOD,” Hamilton said.

An example of a TOD, or Transit Oriented Development, would be a collection of bus stops, or transit hub, underneath, on top of, or at least very close to, a retail complex. The idea is of a symbiotic relationship, where one benefits the other – people use the transit because it’s close to where they want to go, and the proximity of convenient transit draws people into the stores.

The Town Center plan, as it stands, makes only a cursory reference to the role of public transit in the Town Center.

Although he said he was supportive of better transit systems, commission chair Tom Vance raised opposition to Hamilton’s firm idea.

“Are you suggesting we put a park and ride in the Town Center?” Vance asked.

“Absolutely,” Hamilton replied.

Throughout the long discussion Vance held to his idea that any new park and ride would be better located in the north end of the Plateau.

There is currently a park and ride in the south end of the Plateau, at the corner of 228th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 32nd Street.

But Hamilton and commission Jan Klier felt it was important that such a facility be in very close proximity to the major retail, residential and commercial developments.

Klier said that at present he commutes by bus to Seattle, but in order to catch the bus he has to first drive to the bus stop, usually to Issaquah.

“You could live in the Town Center without a car, except it is a long way to get to 228th, which is where the buses go from,” he said. “The TOD would need to be a destination in the city, so you can encourage people to use transit. You have to make it easy.”

Klier used the example of the newly constructed Issaquah Park and Ride on Newport Way as what Sammamish should be trying to avoid.

“That’s a dead area down there,” he said. Klier said that ideally park and rides should be near supermarkets, grocers or other retail attractions, so commuters could get off the bus or train and do their shopping, or go to the gym. But that lifestyle interaction doesn’t happen accidentally.

“We can encourage people to interact with the Town Center with a city-wide transit policy,” Klier said.

While Vance was concerned about the cost of providing a large parking facility in the Town Center, Hamilton said making the Town Center a transit hub was crucial to its becoming a commercial, and social, success.

“Trossachs isn’t going to be walking over here (the Town Center), Timberline isn’t going to be walking over here, Demrey Hill isn’t going to be walking over here, my neighborhood isn’t going to be walking over here,” he said. “The idea that the Town Center is going to be this great panacea and solve all of our transit problems… well, it isn’t.”

Commissioner Mahbubul Islam agreed that having park and rides so far from a central residential development was a problem.

“For some people to drive to south end buses, it is is 3 to 5 miles,” he said. “It defeats the purpose if you have to get in your car and drive for 15 minutes before you catch the bus.”

But, he said, Sammamish was largely at the mercy of higher powers in solving transit issues.

“Transit here has to do with the regional,” he said. “I haven’t seen any plans that mass transit is coming to Sammamish.”

Commission vice-chair Dick Amidei and commissioner Erica Tiliacos felt that planning for a TOD in the Town Center now was putting the cart before the horse.

“We’re all in favor of TOD but I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Amidei said. “I question whether we’re going to have that level of development.” He suggested there were other things the city could do to promote transit use, such as buying bus passes for residents, or encouraging employers to subsidize transit for their employees.

Tiliacos too felt that including a large-scale TOD in the Town Center blueprint was risky.

“You have to have that commitment that transit will go there,” she said. “We’re saying let’s build the density and the transit will come. I’m not so sure that it will come.”

Earlier this year City Manager Ben Yazici told The Reporter the city was in regular negotiations with King County Metro and Sound Transit to secure and increase the current level of service, which is limited to three commuter routes running only in peak morning and evening times. There is currently no all day service in Sammamish.

He said that the city’s transit picture was reliant on land use planning.

“Transit can only be successful if it is a, convenient, and b, it means better travel time,” Yazici said. “Land use is a critical component. It’s all inter-related. There must be a land use plan that is supportive of a transit plan, and vice-versa.”

Which is at the core of Hamilton’s point.

“It was through the effort of the council, primarily Don Gerend, that Sound Transit agreed to put the 554 (bus route) through here,” Hamilton said. “It’s sort of the chicken or the egg. The buses won’t come unless the people come here, and we won’t have the people unless the development is here. If we put together a strong TOD plan, not just a few words, then we can go to Sound Transit, and King County Metro, and say ‘we have made a real commitment.'”

This week Gerend told The Reporter he didn’t see the purpose of designing a transit hub in the Town Center, as demand and service did not justify it.

“That isn’t going to happen in Sammamish,” he said. “Not in the foreseeable future.”

Gerend said he was in favor of some kind of van pool facility, but added he believed the key to the Town Center plan was “adaptive management.” “How can we think about designing something for the next 50 or 60 years, or even 20?” he said.

Hamilton proposed that the commission draft a transmittal letter to the city council, urging them to take steps to mitigate the impacts of traffic from the Town Center development by including a transit facility in the plan – that “TOD ought to be a part of whatever this thing turns out to be.”

The commission will consider the option of a transmittal letter, and what it might say, in coming meetings.