September 15, 2010 Locally owned Founded 1992 50 cents
EFR won’t help with Fall City
Buddy welcomes students to BLMS
City hopes to help the hungry
By Caleb Heeringa
By Caleb Heeringa
It appears Fall City’s fire department may be on its own as it tries to make up for the financial hole incurred by Sammamish’s annexation of the Aldarra and Montaine neighborhoods. King County Fire District 27, which covers Fall City, lost an estimated 15 percent of its tax base in the annexation, which became official in July. Sammamish officials had told the district it would try to soften the blow from the move and asked two Eastside Fire and Rescue partners slated to save money due to the annexation to forgo those savings for two and a half years and forward that money to Fall City. The city of Issaquah and Fire
Sammamish will do its part to help out those less fortunate this fall. The Mayor’s Month of Concern for the Hungry will kick off Sept. 25 with City Council members and staff collecting nonperishable food at local grocery stores. Volunteers are needed for the kick off day as well as for collections on several other Saturdays throughout October. Sammamish Volunteer Coordinator Dawn Sanders said the event is part of an informal competition between several Eastside cities, including Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah. Last year Sammamish finished near the bottom with Newcastle,
See EFR, Page 3
Photo by Christopher Huber
Meghan Horn, a sixth-grader, pets Buddy, Beaver Lake Middle School’s mascot, outside the main entrance during the school’s welcome back barbeque. See Page 12.
See HUNGRY, Page 5
City Council begins approving Town Center regs By Caleb Heeringa
It’s not every day that the Sammamish City Council draws applause for taking away an opportunity for public comment. But that’s precisely what happened when the council voted unanimously Sept. 8 to close the public hearing on a set of development regulations that the council hopes will put the long-awaited Town Center project in motion. “In my opinion, I don’t think there’s anyone in the room who would think that we haven’t heard, over the last seven years, every aspect of every angle of this issue,” Councilman John James said before making a motion to close the public and written comment period.
The audience, which included several property owners slated to see their lowdensity land rezoned into valuable mixeduse development projects, cheered at the decision. With the comment period closed, the council began deliberating on a series of proposals designed to address some of the concerns raised by the public during the last three months of open public comment, including how to handle land owners interested in keeping their property as is instead of developing it like the city’s plan envisions. That issue drew a spirited debate and split vote in the council, with Councilmembers Michele Petitti, Tom Odell, James and Mark Cross eventually
voting to make a wholesale change of the zoning in the area all at once and not allowing property owners to opt out or request a lower-density zoning. Don Gerend, Nancy Whitten and John Curley voted against the motion. At issue are a handful of land owners – estimated by Community Development Director Kamuron Gurol at four – that have told the city they have no interest in selling or developing their property and don’t want to be taxed off of it. A property rezoned to higher density may be taxed much more than it was before. But Gurol said the city also had to weigh the Town Center plan and the eight years and hundreds of hours of public
Eastlake has a new principal
unusual anniversary present
schools page 12
community page 10
meetings that went into it. An uncooperative landowner in a prime location could lead to an empty field in what the city envisions as its downtown core. For Curley, the issue was about property rights. “It is their freedom,” he said. “We can’t take that away from them by slapping (a zoning) on them and taxing them out of there.” Gurol had presented the council with a compromise option by which interested property owners could ask the city to leave them at the lower density for three years, which would theoretically prevent the spike in their tax bill.
Calendar...........16 Classifieds........19 Community.......10 Editorial.............4 Police................7 Schools............12 Sports..............14
See TOWN, Page 2