Sammamish Planning Commission to Hold ECA Round Table

The Sammamish Planning Commission will hold a public discussion as it works toward an update of the city's Environmentally Critical Areas ordinance. The meeting will be held at City Hall from 6 - 9 p.m. Thursday, March 1.

Environmentally critical areas include wetlands, streams and other fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, and aquifer recharge areas. The city’s Environmentally Critical Areas Regulations set the standards and criteria for development or other activities proposed in and around critical areas.

The city recently extended the sunset clause for updating the ordinance by one year, with a commitment to work on completing the update within this year. The previous update, completed in 2005, was set to expire in 2009, but the deadline was extended to January 2012.

The Citizens for Sammamish environmental group has identified known topics that it would like addressed in the update, such as development restrictions in wetland or landslide hazard areas and mitigation requirements for developers in envirnmentally sensitive areas, and the city has received extensive public comment from residents.