Over the past few months several members of the congregation asked various Council members questions about the three draft plans for the Sammamish Town Center.* During that time both Tom Ryan of the Congregational Council and Pr. John have been in active conversation with the Mayor of Sammamish and City Planning staff. As it stands today, only one of  the current alternatives (#2) has any provision for a church to continue at the corner of 228^th St. and 8^th St. SE.   

 Over the next few months the City Planning staff has been tasked with taking aspects of all three drafts and putting them into one master plan for consideration by the City Council.  It is unknown at this time as to whether or not Sammamish Hills Lutheran Church will be in that final draft.  What does this mean?

1.  If the Sammamish Town Center master plan is adopted with other uses zoned for our property, we would be fine unless we went to remodel or change our buildings and grounds in any significant manner.  Should we wish to remodel or expand, we would be subject to the same criteria as any property owner—meeting planning guidelines, building codes, etc.
    

2. At some point, a private developer would probably begin making overtures to the Congregational Council about the church selling our land and relocating.  Please be clear, the City of Sammamish has neither the right to condemn our land, nor the inclination or the funding to do so, either. This would have to be done by a private developer through a process of negotiating to purchase the church property.

What can be done now to ensure we retain the right to further develop our ministries at the corner of 228^th and SE 8^th Streets?  You can start by talking to any and all City Council members:

Mayor Michelle Petitti  mpetitti@ci.sammamish.wa.us   425.392.9208

Jack Barry  jbarry@ci.sammamish.wa.us    425.837.0060

Mark Cross  mcross@ci.sammamish.wa.us

Lee Fellinge lfellinge@ci.sammamish.wa.us  425.868.0707

Don Gerend dgerend@ci.sammamish.wa.us  425.392.7531

Kathy Huckaby  khuckabay@ci.sammamish.wa.us  425.392.8905

Nancy Whitten  nwhitten@ci.sammamish.wa.us 425.295.0500

 Let them know your concerns for:

1. The inclusion of a church in the Sammamish Town Center.
    

2. The commitment the members of Sammamish Hills have to our church serving the community at our current location.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact either Tom Ryan at (tomgryan@msn.com) or Pr. John LaMunyon (prjohn@shlc.org).

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*The plans may be viewed at City Hall or on the Internet at  http://www.ci.sammamish.wa.us/TownCenter.aspx, under the heading of “October 12th Joint Property Owner, Town Center Committee, City Council and Planning Commission Meeting”