South Lake Sammamish Association (SLSA)

Quarterly Meeting Minutes
April 5, 2006

Attendees

The meeting was held at 7:00 pm at the Library Service Center on Newport. 9 Members present (plus 2 members of the City Planning Department):

Gary Thede – Chair & Sammamish Beach Club
David Bangs – Secretary/Treasurer
Deborah Parsons – Vice Chair & Greenwood Point
Caleb Tarleton – Sammamish View
Dan Albertson - Meadowbrook Point
Chad Hardisty – South Cove
Andy Zollers – Sammamish Beach Club
Mary Victory – Meerwood
Joan Probala – South Cove
Bob Brock – Issaquah Public Works Engineering Director
Gary Costa – Issaquah Public Works Transportation Manager

Meeting Introduction

Gary called the meeting to order at 7:10 with introductions around the room.

Minutes from February 2, 2006 Meeting

No corrections.

SLSA Update

About 50-60 residents attended the City of Issaquah Open House on March 1. It was great of the City to do this for us.

The Annexation Celebration/Parade drew about 325-350 people. Coverage was in the Issaquah Press.

Budget Update

All associations have contributed, except for Lake West. We spent $171.14 on the parade. We have $684.24 in the bank.

Annexation Update

Channel 21 City of Issaquah Public Access channel.

Comcast has up to 6 months to get us the access. Gary called Comcast and was told it would take 3-6 months; so September at the earliest. You can watch City Council meetings, Development Commission, other City events, hear about things going on in the City. Live feed, then rebroadcasts.

Cable rates and content vary a little now that we are in the city of Issaquah.

Area Census

Gary talked to Mark Hinthorne, the City Planning Director. A majority of people knew there was a census and responded positively. The unofficial count: as of April 2, there were 1565 residences in our area: 2/3 single family, 1/3 multiple family. Estimated 3720 citizens in the annexed area.

This moves Issaqauah up to about 21,500 residents. Some new cut-off/activities have to be done for cities having over 20,000 residents.

Annexation of Parks

Meerwood, Timberlake and Blackberry Parks are still part of King County, but will supposedly become part of Issaquah eventually. Gary thinks this will happen for Timberlake and Meerwood by June, but doesn’t think that Blackberry Park will come over to the City. Blackberry park is considered a King County property, not a park.

Blackberry Park has collected $15,000, in addition to the $10,000 from Starbucks, to add playground equipment.

SLSA Mailing List

If you know anyone who would like to join the e-mail list, forward them the SLSA newsletter, or have them contact slsainfo2006 (at) issaquahweb.org .

David will change the address every year because it collects too much Spam.

Car Prowls

Bob Hogan, of the Sammamish Beach Club e-mailed Gary that there have been some car prowls in the area. Please remember to remove all valuables and lock your car.

Presentation by Issaquah Public Works – Bob Brock / Gary Costa

The Public Works is broken up in two segments:

Engineering –Bob Brock

· Resource Conservation (water, streams quality)

· Major Development and Review Team

· Transportation – Gary Costa

· Utilities Management

· Capital Improvement – information online

- Including bypass

- Underpass

Operations – Bret Heath

· Maintenance

· Pavement management

· Street sweeping

· Storm cleaning

Storm water maintenance is currently still a Bellevue issue in our area. In July and August the storm drains are scheduled for cleaning. The long-term plan is for this to change over to the City of Issaquah.

Roads and Sidewalks

The City budget is $100,000 - $150,000 for repairing sidewalks. This includes grinding raised sidewalks or replacing damaged sidewalks, as necessary. Refer repair requests to Dennis Cheung. 8 were submitted to Gary so far, which he has forwarded. Dennis and Gary Costa are working on the prioritizations.

$30,000 has been set aside for sidewalks, curbs and gutters in the South Cove area. $125,000 is set aside for the rest of the city. There could be changes in the sidewalk policy changing the responsibility for sidewalks from the City to the homeowner. Any work in the right of way requires a permit.

Pavement overlay areas have been identified. Bob passed around a map showing prioritized streets. The full budget for road repairs is $640,000.

David Bangs expressed concern that the patching of "alligatored" areas in the past hasn’t lasted more than 6 months. Bob thinks that it’s because the sub-base is bad, and thicker patches should last longer.

Traffic Calming

$30,000 is budgeted this year for traffic radar signs. These are effective at slowing down traffic. One sign costs about $8,000-12,000 installed, depending on availability of power. Residential streets are not high priority because there are arterials that need them. The portable/trailer ones are put out by the police department by request. Call Chris Felstad to request one, which will be placed for a couple of weeks.

Mary Victory expressed concern that 188^th and 192^nd are two main roads that come from W. Lake Sammamish and the speed on those roads is very excessive. Can we get speed bumps?

$28,000 is budged for traffic calming this year. E-mail Gary Costa to discuss problem areas. Phase 1, speed trailer and Speed Watch program (volunteer resident can jot down license plates, and the police dept will write a letter to the resident). Phase 2: construction of some traffic control device (speed humps, chicane). Requires 60-70% of the residents on that street to sign a petition.

How Speed Limits are Established

Starts with premise that most people drive prudently. State law requires establishment of 85% percentile. (Assumed the top 15% are not driving prudently.) Then take into account physical features and safety issues. Changing the sign because you want people to slow down does not change the speed on the roadway; it only allows the highway patrol to collect more fines.

The radar speed sign DOES effectively lower the speeds.

Obstructing Brush

If there is brush or trees on private property that is blocking the view of traffic, contact Code Compliance Officer Michele Forkner and a letter will be written to the homeowner.

Citizen Action Requests (CAR)

These are your opportunity to report issues that are troubling you and they will be forwarded to the right department. On the website at http://www.ci.issaquah.wa.us/ContactUs.asp

David asked when the road paving will happen. Should be this summer. Call Jim Brown for a more specific date. Best time for paving is July and August.

Gary said a Citizen Action Request was put in for 192^nd. If a road has over 6,000 cars, it requires a stripe. If it has 4,000-6,000 cars, then the stripe won’t be removed. Gary says there are about 1,500 cars. We have been working with Dave Parks. He did the traffic count.

Gary put in a CAR for the parked cars at the intersection of 188^th and the Sammamish Parkway. It’s a blind corner, especially at night.

David asked about improving sidewalks/walkways along the W. Lake Sammamish Parkway. Can the road be shifted to one side or the other to provide a better sidewalk/walkway along one side? There are currently sections where it narrows to 2 inches. Bikes cross the road at about the old Issaquah sign because the better side switches. Gary thinks that the connection to the new East Lake trail will increase the bike traffic along that road ten-fold.

Bellevue is putting in a raised sidewalk and bike path along their portion of the Parkway.

Joan asked if the “no parking” in front of the “new homes” on the Parkway can be enforced. Cars parked there forces bikes out into the street.

TIP (Transportation Improvement Plan) - statewide. Sidewalks along the Parkway may be a TIP and not a CIP (Capital Improvement Plan). Joan said the TIP has about 20 things on it that have been there for years.

The E. Lake Sammamish & 56^th intersection is being redone. There will be two left turn lanes. Eastbound will be widened: 2 exclusive left lanes, a thru, and a right turn lane. Currently this backs up to the Black Nugget Road.