Mayor frames updated comprehensive plan and Town Center as guide for 20-year vision

Mayor Karen Howe said Sammamish’s comprehensive plan is the council’s “North Star,” describing it as a 20-year planning document that lays out the city’s vision, goals and values. The plan’s ten vision strategies, Howe said, were developed with community input beginning in 2019 and informed a formal planning process that began in 2022.

Howe said the council is updating the Town Center plan to reflect current conditions and to achieve a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood that the city first envisioned in 2008. "Town Center provides an opportunity to achieve our shared goal that everyone has a place to live in Sammamish as we invest in our community through new employment opportunities and diversify our tax base," Howe said. She said the Town Center build-out will include preservation of 74 acres of critical areas and state-of-the-art stormwater facilities to improve local water quality.

The mayor tied the comprehensive plan and Town Center update to other city priorities, including housing diversification and transportation investments. She noted Town Center’s role as a gathering place—citing Met Market and the farmers market at The Commons—and said businesses such as Ace Hardware have committed to locate in the Town Center later this summer as the area develops.

Howe said the Town Center update is intended to preserve open space while creating retail, residential and civic space that can reduce residents’ need to travel off the plateau for everyday services. She did not provide a timeline, ordinance numbers, or specific zoning changes associated with the update in her remarks.