Sammamish planners review draft Town Center SEIS and code updates as council readies alternative selection

Sammamish Planning Commission members examined a draft supplemental environmental impact statement and associated code updates for the city’s Town Center at an unusual Wednesday meeting on June 18. City staff and consultant Jeff Arango of Framework reviewed two SEIS alternatives — a “no action” baseline that models roughly 2,000 Town Center residential units and an “action” alternative that models roughly 4,000 units — and described proposed zoning, street‑design and incentive changes meant to make higher‑density multifamily development more feasible.

The draft SEIS, posted June 9, focuses its environmental analysis on land use, housing and transportation, city staff said, and the formal comment period runs through July 9. “An EIS is really a tool for decision making and a conduit for public input,” Arango told commissioners, adding that written comments received during the public comment period will inform a final SEIS and any refinements to the plan or code.

Why it matters: the Town Center plan and its implementing code have shaped what development is permitted there for almost two decades. Planning staff and consultants told commissioners that the existing code and several unique features (including an atypical system of development credits and density allocations) have contributed to low Town Center housing production and to a pattern of predominantly for‑sale townhomes rather than the mixed housing and ground‑floor retail that the plan envisioned.

What staff proposed and why. Framework described a streamlined set of zoning districts (an urban core, an urban mix and a middle‑housing/garden zone) and a hybrid form‑based code that emphasizes building‑to‑street relationships, frontages, and street types. The draft would reduce the number…