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Health & Fitness

Looking at Issaquah of the Future - Part Four

Are funding considerations impacting the plans to convert Central Issaquah into an economically and environmentally sustainable urban center?

This is the fourth in a series of articles exploring the proposed Central Issaquah Plan and its implications for the people who live and work in Issaquah. The Central Issaquah Plan is a blueprint for converting 1100 acres of valley floor from an area of strip malls, storage units, and parking lots to high-density multi-use development. The City Council hopes to approve a final version of the plan by the end of this year. The introduced the Central Issaquah Plan and the factors motivating its development. The explored how the future might look if a Central Issaquah Plan is not adopted. The examines a future Issaquah as envisioned by a Central Issaquah Plan Advisory Task Force appointed by Mayor Frisinger. This final article in the series considers the draft plan that the City administration will submit to the City Council for review and possible approval.

What makes a city sustainable?

In 2009 the City of Issaquah put the question to residents and business owners. The process resulted in a set of principles intended to guide creation of a plan for conversion of Central Issaquah into an urban center. These principles include “promoting environmental sustainability, improving architectural design, integrating development with the natural setting, and creating new public spaces such as parks, plazas, pedestrian corridors, and streetscapes.”

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Yet, residents are questioning whether the guiding principles are adequately reflected in the draft plan that the City administration will present to the City Council for consideration. “I agree with all of the guidelines. The guidelines were wonderful then, they're wonderful now,” Kay Haynes, who had participated in the design process in its early stages stated at a public hearing. “But the vision that I'm hearing expressed tonight is not the vision I have for Issaquah.” 

This draft plan differs substantially from the . It is denser, with more ten-story high rises, less green space, and fewer community areas. It doesn’t require early transportation improvements and therefore entails more traffic and parking spaces. It doesn’t mandate building materials and techniques designed to have a lower negative impact on the environment. And it assumes almost 5000 more housing units and about 9000 fewer jobs than the Task Force recommendation.

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According to sources within the development community and City staff, financial considerations are the primary motivators for the differences.

The chicken and the egg

“I keep likening it to the chicken and the egg,” said Joe Forkner, Chair of the Central Issaquah Plan Advisory Task Force, echoing a sentiment expressed by City staff as well.

Put simply, the City needs growth to acquire the funds necessary to finance infrastructure improvements and purchase space for parks. Conversely, that growth is less likely to occur before the infrastructure improvements are in place and without a unique attraction, such as ample green space and easy access to recreational activities in the Issaquah Alps and on Lake Sammamish. “You have to have the basics in there first. You have to be able to get around town. You have to have the connectivity before the builders are going to come in,” said Joan Probala Co-chair of the Planning Policy Commission and active community member for 15 years.

Complicating matters further is competition from neighboring cities that have aggressive growth targets. Cities such as Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond have better transportation systems and concrete plans to improve them and other infrastructure systems needed to accommodate such growth. “We are part of a greater Puget Sound region, and so we compete locally with Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, Seattle, and Renton for the best businesses for our community,” noted a representative of the business community in a recent interview.

The City administration’s proposed solution is to commit to much more growth than that required by the State’s Growth Management Act, and to provide developer incentives designed to make Issaquah a more financially attractive proposition than neighboring cities. This solution would entail 7,750 new housing units, 29,225 more employees, and 6.9 million square feet of additional commercial space in Central Issaquah. It would also release initial developers from requirements to provide affordable housing, give them tax exemptions, allow developers to pick and choose from design standard requirement menus, employ a “streamlined” permitting process, and loosen certain standards. Allowing more impervious surface, increasing building density and heights, and removing requirements for setbacks and building envelopes would, according to Planning Manager Trish Heinonen, make it easier for permit applicants to “be creative with their site planning."

“Yes, it’s going to look different,” stated a government official in an interview. “Over time, the buildings will be taller and, especially in the core, there will be less green on each individual lot.”

The aspect of change

“It is the aspect of change that is sometimes more difficult to deal with than the actual impact or result of the development,” said the official.

Still, many people welcome the notion of change. When Probala talks about Issaquah of the future she envisions a vibrant, tree-sheltered, family friendly community oriented to meet the needs of bicyclists, hikers, and people who want to enjoy amenities along our lake and streams. Squak Mountain residents interviewed for this article want more places where they can safely walk dogs, where children can play, and teens can hang out. These are visions that residents would like to see realized long before the first high rises go up.

In short, it is the infrastructure improvements that constitute the change many residents envision with excitement. Members of groups like Sustainable Issaquah, the Issaquah Environmental Council, and GAIT advocate taking care of the chicken and egg problem by placing a higher priority on sustainable infrastructure improvements. Build the public transportation, trails, bike paths, parks, playfields, and gathering places that will attract people to Issaquah and keep them here. This, they say, will in turn spark the development of the shops and services that will cater to them. And eventually, it will lead to the kind of development that fits in with the Issaquah lifestyle rather than changing it.

Yet, despite the desire for public infrastructure improvements, residents and businesses are apparently unwilling to fund them.

“There appears to be a relatively strong lack of support for public infrastructure these days,” commented the government official. “Is it always going to be that way, are we not going to invest? Maybe in 10, 20, or 30 years the pendulum will swing back the other way and people will realize that if we want a strong economy we need a strong transportation system. We need an educated population. We need parks.”

How will the public infrastructure needed to support growth be funded and when? And how will these funding choices affect how the City of Issaquah will look in the future? The City Council is poised to decide.

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