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Sammamish staff refine $55 million parks plan, warn priorities must be narrowed
Summary
City staff presented updates to the Sammamish parks capital improvement plan, citing $32 million on hand and roughly $55 million projected over six years, and urged the commission to trim or phase projects after finding the draft list exceeds likely funding and contains spreadsheet discrepancies.
City parks staff presented an updated capital improvement plan (CIP) to the Sammamish Parks and Recreation Commission on June 3, summarizing community input and internal priorities and saying the draft program currently exceeds projected revenues.
Angelie Mayer, director of parks and recreation, and Michelle Erab, parks project manager, told commissioners the city currently has about $32 million committed to parks work and expects roughly $55 million in revenue over the next six years from real estate excise tax, park impact fees and King County levies. Staff said those totals assume continuing grant opportunities but cautioned that several large projects together would leave the CIP in deficit without scope reductions or phased timing.
Staff front‑loaded maintenance and existing‑asset preservation as top priorities, with trails, upgrades to existing parks and targeted land acquisition following. Erab said Pine Lake Park work (dock decking, parking resurfacing, a prefabricated ADA restroom and playground improvements) is being combined into a single project to limit repeated park closures and that the combined cost for those elements is “a little over a million dollars.”
Commissioners pressed staff on spreadsheet math and overall affordability after one commissioner reported a roughly $8.442 million discrepancy between line‑item subtotals and the six‑year total. Mayer acknowledged the CIP remains a work in progress and committed to re‑checking the arithmetic and updating the document before the July follow‑up. "We have been changing this on a daily basis," she said.
Staff also briefed the commission on design and permitting uncertainties that affect timing and cost estimates, noting long lead items (for example, prefabricated ADA restrooms) and seasonal constraints for waterfront work. The commission asked staff to analyze likely operating‑budget implications for large projects and to examine whether project scopes can be reduced while still meeting community needs.
Next steps: staff will refine the draft CIP, meet with City Council the following week, return to the commission in July, and use the recommended CIP to inform the 2027–28 biennial budget.
