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Street-tree inventory: Sammamish updates city-managed tree data and issues planting and code recommendations
Summary
A consultant inventory covered 1,525 trees in Sammamish maintenance zones and produced maintenance guidance, a GIS update that staff integrated into the city’s asset system, and regulatory recommendations to inform future code and public-works standards updates.
The Sammamish City Council received a right-of-way tree study Feb. 11 that inventoryed street trees in city-maintained corridors, offered short- and mid-term maintenance recommendations, and proposed regulatory clarifications for future code and public-works standard updates.
The consultant Facet surveyed 1,525 trees across the city’s 19 public-works maintenance zones and reported that roughly 1,100 of those are maintained by the city; the majority were characterized as in good health. “The majority of the trees examined are in good health,” Facet’s report said, and city staff have integrated the updated dataset into CityWorks, the municipal asset-management system.
Why it matters: the inventory creates a baseline for planned maintenance, prioritization, and future canopy management. It also provides technical guidance staff can use when updating the city’s right‑of‑way standards and, later, the municipal code that governs trees during construction and redevelopment.
Findings and near-term actions
Facet’s assessment recorded species, condition and site constraints, and recommended immediate watering, mulching and pruning guidance for the city’s public-works crews to apply during the growing season. The consultant also recommended continued monitoring and targeted removals where trees are unsafe or unsalvageable. City staff said the recent November bomb cyclone caused relatively few new failures among city-maintained right-of-way trees and that the Facet dataset remains usable.
Planting, species diversity and mid-term recommendations
Facet urged mixing tree species by family along a block-by-block basis rather than planting single-species corridors, which can magnify losses from pests or disease. The report includes soil-volume and planting guidance, and staff said crews and contractors will use those standards for future plantings. Facet also suggested structural soil and bioswale options where tree plantings are constrained by underground infrastructure.
Regulatory and code implications
The report reviewed the city’s public-works standards and municipal code and recommended clearer, consistent language across documents, additional arboricultural detail in planting guidance, and stronger protections for existing trees during construction. Staff noted that the study is foundational: code updates and a broader urban‑forest management plan (including parks and private trees) are planned for the coming biennium.
Ending
City staff will use the inventory in CityWorks to schedule maintenance and to inform the 2026 right‑of‑way code update and public-works standards revisions. The report will also support future work on a parks-focused canopy inventory and broader urban‑forest planning.
