Issaquah’s only locally owned newspaper
THE ISSAQUAH PRESS
117th Year, No. 33
Thursday, August 18, 2016
issaquahpress.com
110-apartment building proposed one block from 344-unit Atlas By Scott Stoddard sstoddard@isspress.com
Greg Farrar / gfarrar@isspress.com
CAUSE&
Tibbetts Valley Park
NW
Gil ma n
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Issaquah Valley Elementary School
Front St.
Inneswood Apartments site (93 units)
. N. r Blvd Rainie
NW Juniper St.
See APARTMENTS, Page 10
Scott Stoddard / sstoddard@isspress.com
Atlas Apartments (344 units) 7th Ave.
Issaquah Apartments site (110 units)
W yN Wa ort wp Ne
A bumper-to-bumper line of cars and trucks crawls through downtown Issaquah on Front Street during an afternoon commute.
Grouparchitect / City of Issaquah
The proposed Issaquah Apartments project would include 110 units and be located at 955 Seventh Ave. NW, between Northwest Juniper and Northwest Locust streets.
12th Ave.
EFFECT
A public hearing has been scheduled regarding a proposed 110-unit apartment building that would be built at 955 Seventh Ave. NW, one block south of the 344-unit Atlas Apartments complex. The public hearing will be part of the city Development Commission’s Sept. 21 meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the City Council chambers, City Hall South, 130 East Sunset Way. The project, named Issaquah Apartments, would be built on a combination of three parcels on Seventh between Northwest Gilman Boulevard and Northwest Juniper Street. A two-bedroom, one-bathroom home has stood on one of the parcels for 116 years, according to county tax records. The current taxpayer of record for the parcels is a limited liability company controlled by the managing partners of Seattle-based
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Cars and trucks bound for State Route 18 and Snoqualmie Parkway stack up on westbound Interstate 90 approaching Exit 25.
Sources: Esri, DeLorme, IPC, NAVTEQ, NRCan
Familiar refrain at East Sunset open house: Preserve street parking By Lizz Giordano lgiordano@isspress.com
A woefully inadequate Interstate 90 interchange plays a significant role in the weekday strangling of Front Street Piles of debris — colorful shards of taillights, headlights and blinkers, shiny pieces of side mirrors, the bent plastic of bumpers — lay around the underpass and ramps of the Interstate 90/State Route 18 interchange near Snoqualmie. They are a reminder of the problems that plague the interchange nearly every day during rush-hour traffic. Not that anyone needs reminding. Congestion at the interchange has steadily worsened in recent years, with population growth and job growth affecting the area. Downtown Issaquah absorbs the shortcomings of the busy interchange. Between 30,000-35,000 cars per day, roughly the equivalent of Issaquah’s
Parking was again on the minds of residents and business owners along East Sunset Way when they gathered for an Aug. 10 open house held by the city to discuss conceptual designs for the roadway. Over 100 people dropped by the Eagle Room at City Hall eager to give their input on potential street redesigns of East Sunset Way from Sixth Avenue Southeast to First Avenue Southeast. The project is one of four included in a $50 million transportation bond voters will consider in November. See mock-ups of the East Sunset Way design options here. “They are just using Band-Aids,”
See INTERSECTION, Page 12
See SUNSET, Page 6
By Stuart Miller smiller@isspress.com
Christina Corrales-Toy / ccorrales-toy@isspress.com
Incoming Issaquah School District youngsters and parents climb aboard for a trial run on riding the school bus before school officially starts.
Parents, kindergartners get refresher on riding the bus By Christina Corrales-Toy ccorrales-toy@isspress.com There are three rules on a school bus, and bottoms, inside voices and quiet hands just happen to be the essential components. A group of incoming Issaquah School District kindergartners learned that and more last week at a special test run of the bus-riding experience before school officially starts. “Bottoms to bottoms, backs to backs,” shouted district driver and trainer Gina Carey as dozens of See BUS, Page 12
Sink your teeth into edible landscaping tour By Lizz Giordano lgiordano@isspress.com
Lizz Giordano / lgiordano@isspress.com
Margarita Martinez hands plums down to her husband while they harvest fruit along the Gilman Boulevard Edible Landscape Tour.
Issaquah residents Lisa Ye and her friend Ying (she uses only one name) worked quickly filling two bags with plums, slightly nervous that harvesting from the fruit trees along Gilman Boulevard might be forbidden. But these plums were too plump and juicy, just ripe for the picking, to be ignored. Not only is it allowed to eat the fruit, but the city encourages resi-
“Driving through, we would see the trees but we never stopped. We weren’t sure we were allowed.” —Ying Issaquah resident on edible landscaping tour
dents to feast from trees along the busy street. In 1985 the city used edible plants to landscape the thoroughfare, creating the
Gilman Boulevard Edible Landscape Tour. “For more than 30 years, the edible landscape has been available to our community.” said Jennifer Fink, park planner for the city. “Everybody is welcome, and the fruit is there for all to enjoy.” Beginning at Front Street North and ending just before 12th Avenue Northwest, the Gilman Boulevard Edible Landscape Tour See EDIBLE, Page 6 FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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