Tom Vance, the current Chair of the City of Sammamish Planning Commission, has announced his candidacy for the Sammamish City Council.
Vance, a former executive in the publishing and communications industry, has identified the Town Center Plan, a new teen center, and environmental preservation as three of the key issues in the future of the city.
“The Town Center is an opportunity to manage our residential growth while providing amenities for our citizens,” he said wrote in press release on Wednesday. “A wider range of retail businesses will reduce the need for trips off the Plateau. And new meeting and gathering places will create a true center of our city. The Town Center also offers us an opportunity to establish more sustainable methods of managing our storm water and reducing energy costs.”
“Teen services need to be a priority,” he continued. “We’ve done a good job, so far, with sports fields and parks, but we need to find a way to build the Teen Center.”
Vance and his wife Mary Lynn have lived in Sammamish since 1994. Like many new residents they were drawn to the area by its landscape.
“We need to be good stewards of our environment,” he wrote. “Most of us moved here, in part, because of the beauty of our local environment. Preserving open space and trails should continue to be a priority.”
Vance has served on local boards and organizations including chairing the Sammamish Park Bond Advisory Board.
“Sammamish is a great city,” he wrote. “My goal as a member of the Council is to preserve the qualities that brought us here while managing the challenges and opportunities in our future. In doing so, I feel I will help provide a wider range of voices on the council.”
“I congratulate the current Council and City Administration for their success over the past several years, developing the Commons and City Hall, creating new parks and open space, working with the school districts to build new sports fields, finishing and continuing vital road projects, and opening the East Lake Sammamish Trail — all while staying under budget and earning a triple A bond rating for the city.”
Vance said that it was important to consider ways to reduce sales tax leakage to nearby cities.
“We need to work with our local small businesses so they can continue to thrive as they offer goods and services in the community while reducing shopping trips off the plateau,” he said. “And we must continue to develop our roads and transit system so that our working residents can spend more time with their families instead of sitting in traffic and congested intersections. Little of the above can be achieved, however, unless we practice fiscal responsibility. We can continue our success in Sammamish by living within our means even as we take advantage of our opportunities.”
