Sammamish: Council Votes to Revitalize Urban Core

Following a lengthy meeting and significant community opposition, the Sammamish City Council has taken a crucial step toward revising its long-stagnant plan for the city's Town Center. The council voted to move forward with a full analysis of raising the housing capacity from the current cap of 2,000 homes to a potential 4,000. This decision sets the stage for a major update to land-use regulations that have, for nearly two decades, hindered the city’s vision of a walkable, vibrant, and active urban core.

Sammamish, a young city incorporated in 1999, has always aimed to develop a central commercial and community hub. Despite having a natural civic campus with City Hall, a library, and a YMCA, dense development has been slow to materialize. The original 2008 Town Center plan envisioned a series of suburban-style town squares with low-scale development, but this model failed to attract projects. Instead, development has been piecemeal, largely occurring outside the Town Center and consisting of single-family homes, with only about 300 homes built within the planned area since 2008.

City leaders, including Mayor Karen Howe, recognize that growth is inevitable and want to guide it toward a more sustainable, centralized model. They hope a new plan will attract more commercial spaces, restaurants, and affordable housing options beyond the current single-family norm. The proposed increase in housing capacity is also seen as essential for meeting new state-mandated affordable housing targets, as the existing capacity for subsidized units has nearly been exhausted. A new plan would also feature a form-based code to make development more feasible and allow for larger apartment buildings that can support ground-floor retail.

Community opposition to the plan, led by groups like Save Our Sammamish, has been fierce, with opponents raising concerns about increased traffic and environmental impacts. A misinformation campaign utilized AI-generated images of a burning city and skyscrapers, despite the fact that building heights are limited to around eight stories with affordable housing. Countering this narrative, a group of local high school students created their own petition and website, Super Sammamish, to provide accurate information and advocate for a more dynamic and less "boring" city.

Another major sticking point for opponents is the city's lack of robust public transit. Currently, Sammamish is a transit desert with extremely limited bus and no light rail service. However, city leaders argue that increasing density in the Town Center is the only way to attract and sustain more frequent and reliable transit in the future, especially as regional transit networks expand in nearby Redmond and Issaquah.

While the vote was only a preliminary step—with a full environmental review and potential appeals still to come—the decision to study a higher housing capacity is a critical move. The city council’s goal is to create a long-term plan that will benefit current and future residents by creating a vibrant community hub and avoiding a missed opportunity that could shortchange future generations.