Despite the seven hours the Sammamish City Council put in at its Monday special study session, the city of Sammamish will likely not complete its comprehensive plan update by the state deadline.

“We are not going to meet the June 30 deadline,” Director of Community Development Jeff Thomas said. “The thorough (city council) review is taking longer than we budgeted.”

All cities must update their comprehensive plans, per Washington state’s Growth Management Act (GMA), every eight years. The central Puget Sound region, including King County, will have to submit updated plans by the end of June. Other parts of the state will submit updates over the following years.

Thomas does not anticipate any negative repercussions, as the city has been in contact with that Washington State Department of Commerce.

“They know we’re making progress,” he said.

City staff will follow up with the state department after the June 9 city council study session. Ideally, after this meeting the city will have a revised schedule for completing the comprehensive plan, as well as more direction from the DOC, Thomas said.

If the city does not meet the deadline, it will be listed as a noncompliant jurisdiction.

“The reality is, if the jurisdiction is making progress, it will be fine,” said Anthony Boscolo, a DOC senior planner who’s been dealing directly with comprehensive plan updates.

He said, often times, the review and the public outreach process can take longer than expected. This is something he’s already seeing, as jurisdictions have to submit a 60-day notice to the agency prior to adopting the updated plan. The DOC will then send that out to other state agencies.

Noncompliant cities run the risk of being ranked as a lower priority for state grants, thus receiving less money.

The comprehensive plan sets guidelines and goals for the city looking 20 years down the road. Some of the major elements that have undergone revisions include the transportation, environmental and land use sections.

Though the city council has been reviewing the document since March, the planning commission has been working on it since spring 2013. The council’s review is the last step to updating the plan.

“It’s been a process,” Thomas said. “Taking a little more time to achieve that comfortable level (with the comprehensive plan revisions) is more important than a couple more weeks on the calendar.”

Mercer Island and Hunts Point are the only other Eastside cities to announce they will not meet the June 30 deadline.