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september 24, 2015
eview R sammamish www.sammamishreview.com
City officials continue to carve out rules for tree retention
Wolves soccer keeps rolling, page 10
Birds of a different feather
By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com
See TREES, Page 2
Attend Lake Sammamish State Park potluck picnic Sept. 27 Picnic and learn more about the future of Lake Sammamish State Park during a potluck lunch 1 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Sunset Beach Bathhouse in the park. Bring a dish to share: hors d’oeuvres, main dish, salad or
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desert. Plates, eating utensils and beverages will be provided. Local musician Rick Young will play guitar. Park interpretive specialist Alysa Adams has put together a nature scavenger hunt for visitors. Prizes are available to all. Learn where the new playground will be built in 2016 and what else is planned for the park.
By Greg Farrar
SLIDESHOW See more photos from the Sept. 19 bird’s nest building project at www. sammamishreview.com.
Karen White, artEAST member, environmental artist and community programming and youth education leader, shows young people how to intertwine boughs to create the base of a large bird’s nest Sept. 19 at the Sammamish Lower Commons Park and Native Plant Garden. Branches and twigs were woven into the base to make a human-sized nest, as the youngsters became co-creators in a community-building project. The nest will be moved by city workers to Big Rock Park in the spring.
Center on schedule to open in March By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@isspress.com The $33.8 million Sammamish Community and Aquatic Center is on schedule for a March 1 opening and seems to be coming in under budget, Mayor Tom Vance said in a phone interview. “A March 1 opening is the goal,” Vance said. In the meantime, the Sammamish YMCA is inviting
those interested to sign up for charter memberships to the new facility. While the city will maintain primary ownership of the new building, the YMCA will have responsibility for operating it. A recent tour showed the building decidedly taking shape, Vance said. The two-story center covers roughly 69,000 square feet and is being built behind
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After making their way painstakingly through 29 potential changes to a proposed tree-retention plan, the Sammamish City Council may be ready to pass the new rules Oct. 6, the date of its first regular October meeting. Besides spending several hours hashing out variance nuances of the ordinance at its meeting Sept. 15, the council also spent several hours discussing the proposal at a study session held the day prior. “I think it’s appropriate that we take as much time as necessary to do it right,” Mayor Tom Vance said after the Sept. 15 meeting. After study and eventual recommendations from the city Planning Commission, the council introduced a new tree ordinance in July. The original plan was to pass the rules Sept. 15, but several council members, most notably Councilwoman Nancy Whitten, expressed concerns about some of the new rules. Of the 29 suggested changes, 28 came from the council and 18 of those from Whitten, according to Councilman Ramiro Valderrama-Aramayo, who praised her for taking the time to study and challenge the plans as she felt was needed. During the Oct. 15 discussion, several suggested changes or requests for clarification received more attention than others. City Community Development Director Jeff Thomas has been the city staff point person on the tree issue. At the last council meeting, Thomas and the council spent a lot of time trying to determine whether tree-retention requirements should differ depending on the size of the lot involved. There also was discussion regarding how to measure the trees removed or replaced, whether by the percentage of the total number of trees on a lot or by simply counting the significant trees removed. While he said nothing is decided, following the meeting, Vance said he believes the city will stick with the 35 percent retention rule as proposed by the Planning Commission for most residential development. That is also the requirement in an interim tree-retention ordinance the council passed as an emergency
Sammamish City Hall on 228th Avenue Southeast. “We have had a really, really, good experience with the contractors,” Vance added. He said a construction contingency fund remains largely intact, with only a few hundred thousand dollars having been spent. All in all, Vance predicted contractors Porter Brothers See YMCA, Page 3
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