A brief history of Sammamish affordable housing and housing affordability

The citizens of Sammamish voted to incorporate in 1999 because King County was permitting thousands of new homes here without providing adequate infrastructure or properly governing the 20 square miles between Issaquah and Redmond.

The first City Councils, after incorporation, enacted a six-year moratorium on new subdivisions while the county-approved developments of nearly 3,500 housing units (mostly single-family homes) were built. The new city began to aggressively alleviate the lack of infrastructure, civic amenities, and buildings.

Our principal arterial, 228 Ave., was a two-lane country road before Sammamish incorporated. Miles of sidewalks were built, many new parks (Evans Creek Preserve, Ebright Creek Park, Sammamish Landing, Sammamish Commons), and municipal facilities, including City Hall, a new, expanded library, and a maintenance facility, were developed without long-term bonded indebtedness.

These first Councils recognized that, to give the new city a heart and soul, Sammamish needed a Town Center. This would be mixed-use, commercial and residential, with a wide variety of housing options, businesses, gathering places and public space.

The city purchased some 30 acres in the center of Sammamish for City Hall, public facilities and parkland. The region around the city-owned land was sparsely developed and offered an excellent central location for repurposing into a mixed-use Town Center.

We designated about 240 acres as the boundary for the mixed-use area, large enough to allow high density in the center, adjacent to the municipal property, while down-scaling for compatibility with the surrounding single-family neighborhoods.

The Town Center Plan in 2008 included three alternatives, ranging from 1,000-4,000 dwelling units and 600,000 square feet of commercial space. The preferred alternative chosen in 2007 (adopted in 2008) called for 2,000 dwelling units (plus additional units from the transfer of development rights). The Council recognized the need for more affordable housing in Sammamish and therefore required that at least 10% of the new housing be affordable at 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
 
The actual design layouts within Town Center were determined through iterative interactions between developers and the city. My concern at the time was how an holistic Town Center could ever be built among the myriad individual property owners. I suggested that the city should acquire the land, generate a grand design and then partner with developers. This idea was rejected.

The Town Center plan was approved in 2008, and in 2012, the first projects began: three projects, three owner/developers. We were still concerned about how a unified grand vision would come to fruition.

From 2014-2019, Sammamish Town Center Acquisitions LLC (STCA) acquired approximately 90 acres in the Town Center.  I was delighted that the city could work with one primary landowner/developer to create a Town Center as prior Councils envisioned.

In addition to the Town Center 10% inclusionary affordable housing requirement, the city sought ways to provide affordable housing; we created more flexibility for accessory housing units and donated city land to a ten-unit Habitat for Humanity project.

In recent years, the state legislature and Department of Commerce have focused mostly on counties and cities to deliver more affordable housing. The state identified six AMI bands that counties were directed to use to overlay individual negotiated growth targets. Affordable Housing bands are 0-30%, 30-50% and 50-80% AMI. Market Rate housing bands are 80-100%, 100-120% and over 120% AMI. 

In 2023, the King County Affordable Housing Committee (AHC) had discretion to assign the number of units in a growth target to these bands. AHC allocated 100% of the 2,100 Sammamish Growth Target to the three affordable bands from 0-80% AMI.

Usually, developers cannot afford to provide more than 10-20% affordable units before a new project does not pencil out. The city is contemplating increasing the allowable units in Town Center to 4,000 (a 2008 Town Center Plan alternative), which could provide 400-800 affordable units (mainly at 50%-80% AMI) without public subsidy.

This increase could provide the opportunity to broaden the diversity of locally needed market-rate housing. It could improve internal housing balance needs with options to stay in Sammamish over time.

The City Comprehensive Plan contemplates working with faith-based property owners, government grant programs and creative concepts used in other cities, states and countries to generate affordable housing options, primarily at 30% AMI. Providing housing availability for all economic and demographic cohorts is a difficult task, not only in Sammamish but throughout Washington and much of the Country.

Washington has followed Oregon, California, and European countries in managing growth by concentrating urban densities within urban growth boundaries, avoiding sprawl into agricultural/resource and rural residential lands. This increases the cost of available urban land. Coupled with ever-increasing regulatory burdens, it is difficult—and expensive—to achieve affordable housing at all income levels, both market-rate and subsidized (30%-80% AMI).

The current City Council is exploring, with staff and professional consultants, various ways to meet State and County targets while remaining responsible to our residents. I personally support their efforts to find sensible paths forward.

Don Gerend, a resident of Sammamish since 1979 and a member of the City Council from 1999-2017, served as mayor four times.