25TH YEAR, NO. 48
THE PLATEAU’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016
SAMMAMISH
REVIEW
TEARS IN THE RAIN
Kamiakin ends Eastside Catholic’s drive for another state title, 30-27 Page 9
Mayor laments few options available to commuters at transportation summit BY LIZZ GIORDANO lgiordano@sammamishreview.com
LIZZ GIORDANO | lgiordano@sammamishreview.com
Eirlys Vanderhoff, a member of the Sammamish Heritage Society, runs through a checklist documenting a historic house near Lake Sammamish as part of a survey to inventory historic buildings and structures in the city.
Giving history a home
Heritage Society keeps records of city’s historic houses
BY LIZZ GIORDANO lgiordano@sammamishreview.com
On a crisp fall morning, a long gravel driveway leads Ella Moore and Eirlys Vanderhoff to a craftsman-style house built in 1924, perched high on a hill overlooking Lake Sammamish. They get right to work filling out a survey, admiring the decorative beams and the original windows, making note of the type of siding and shingles on the house. From the porch overlooking Lake Sammamish, it’s easy to imagine a time, 90 years in the past, when the plateau was covered in chicken farms. Back then, lumber mills and resort villages dotted the shores of the lake. The house is one of many properties Moore and Vanderhoff have visited over the last year, part of an effort by the Sammamish Heritage Society to record the physical history of the city. About 150 structures built before 1941 are on the list to be inventoried. The group has visited small
farmhouses, once belonging to subsistence farmers, and lakeside resorts that were used to escape the hustle and bustle of Seattle. They’ve documented industries that once drove the region, chronicling the remnants of large poultry farms and sawmills. After photographing and detailing many of the properties, the list has been narrowed to about 40 buildings that members of the Society believe are landmark-eligible or could be officially recognized as a historic building or site. In many of these cases, enough of the original structure is intact, and any changes made to the building can be easily reversed. Only a few fragments of the Sammamish Plateau’s early settlers remain and, as growth continues to accelerate amid an economic boom, what’s left is disappearing fast. Development leaves little behind to remind current SEE HERITAGE, PAGE 3
HOW TO HELP The Sammamish Heritage Society is seeking information about historical properties in Sammamish. The group is looking for details about the construction of any of the older buildings in town (date, builder, construction type), the families who lived there and how the property was used — subsistence farming, commercial chicken farming, timber cutting. Contact the society at sammamish.heritage@ hotmail.com or call Ella Moore, board president, at 392-5545 with information.
Mayor Don Gerend told a panel of Eastside mayors substantial cuts to Metro Transit bus service hours have left commuters few options other than single-occupancy vehicles to get in and out of the city during a regional transportation summit on Nov. 22. Hosted by Issaquah, the summit brought together mayors and officials from various transportation agencies to discuss the impact of regional traffic on communities. Many Eastside cities are suffering from traffic congestion that often starts outside of their city limits. King County Executive Dow Constantine, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff, Metro General Manager Rob Gannon and King County Councilmembers Kathy Lambert, Reagan Dunn and Claudia Balducci were among the officials present for the summit. Gerend said while other cities’ park-and-ride lots are filled to capacity, in Sammamish only about 50 percent of the spaces are occupied due to cuts in midday service and direct bus service to Seattle. Many Sammamish commuters instead use park-and-ride facilities in Issaquah. And for the 4,000 Microsoft employees in Sammamish trying to get to Redmond, commuters experience significant delays along State Route 202, Gerend said. The city wants to get people out of single-
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occupancy vehicles earlier, but without the benefit of a highoccupancy vehicle lane along SR 202 there is little incentive for drivers to do so. “So there is no added advantage for going on transit or car pools or vanpools, you’re stuck with the (single-occupancy vehicles) trying to get to work,” Gerend said. Sammamish also experiences choke points to the north and south of the city, causing delays and congestion in the city and adding pressure to IssaquahHobart Road. During the summit, Issaquah Mayor Fred Butler called Issaquah’s traffic congestion a crisis, saying pass-through vehicles are clogging up local streets and lengthening commute times. “Pass-through traffic heading to and from the IssaquahHobart Road is suffocating our local streets and city cross streets,” Butler said. Butler called the summit a turning point for addressing the problem, saying, “Finding regional solutions to addressing regional traffic flow is essential.” Constantine said with more than 260 people moving to the region each day, traffic congestion was an ongoing challenge. “And we have a limited ability to add appreciably to the road capacity,” Constantine said. Constantine said Sound Transit, Metro and other public transportation will help move people, but SEE SUMMIT, PAGE 5
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