Residents first.
We are a bipartisan, grassroots coalition dedicated to protecting and strengthening Sammamish.
We educate, unite, and empower residents. We advocate for a direction that prioritizes environmental protections, infrastructure, fiscal sustainability, public safety, and transparent governance.
Help us make the City Council listen... Or hold them accountable.
We are concerned about the plan to build 85' buildings and add 2,000 housing units to the Town Center. This development would worsen traffic, overcrowd schools, and harm our natural environment.
Increased population means more road use, raising safety concerns during emergencies. Our schools, already full, may need to bus students to Redmond. Additionally, increased urbanization threatens the trees, lakes, and wildlife that define Sammamish.
Read more about why we urge the city council to reject this plan.
Photo credit Cory M. Grenier
Explore the challenges and opportunities of transit in Sammamish. With most residents relying on cars for their daily commute, the introduction of light rail in nearby Redmond offers potential but limited impact for Sammamish traffic. Learn how commuting alternatives stack up and what the future holds for transportation in the region, and if it will really help our residents.
Sammamish has trees, lots of them, and many are mature Douglas-firs, one of our state's native trees. The TC growth will be at the expense of the tree canopy those trees provide. We're going to lose our natural shade and trade it for a heat island. Also, the animals that depend on those trees, such as the native Douglas squirrel and the brown creeper, will lose their homes.
The Town Center development presents our community with a defining choice
We can either treat this crisis as an inevitable consequence of growth, or take the high road and rise as responsible stewards of our unique ecosystem and demand that the size of this development be limited so as to not extirpate our iconic Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon.
As residents of Sammamish, we must learn to value all the natural treasures that we presently have and work to safeguard them.
Wally Pereyra, Environmentalist, July 2025
The details of Sammamish city finance are complicated, but the underlying problem is simple.
Sammamish, like most cities in Washington, is in a jam. Major expenses tend to grow at the rate of inflation. The major revenue source, property tax, by law cannot increase at the rate of inflation, if it is greater than 1%. In years of low inflation, this was not a big, obvious problem. Then 2022 and 2023 happened. The imbalance became visible, large and short term.
What does this have to do with a much bigger Town Center? City revenues increase with new construction. But city expenses also increase. The City Council hopes that the near term increase in revenue from a bigger Town Center will cover the longer term increase in expenses that it will cause. So far, the City has not provided any justified argument that this will be the way it plays out.
Sammamish doesn't have the infrastructure to support all this growth, nor are there viable plans to build it. We're already failing our traffic concurrency. Our water and sewer system is already stressed, with the water district planning high cost expansions. There is no more room to build schools in our city.
Our roads are already crowded. The City's own studies show that our roads would be more congested than Paradise, California in an evacuation situation. And Paradise burned to the ground.
Our region is already beset by climate emergencies, earthquakes, windstorms and flooding. How are we going to get out?
The Sammamish Town Center is being promoted as a destination for dining, shopping, and civic events, but parking will likely be limited, which may not be sufficient for the number of cars per household, for employers, for visitors to Merrill Gardens and for Town Center shoppers.
The amendment wants to put almost 400,000 square feet of retail in the Town Center. This is half the size of Bellevue Mall! Where are people going to park?
Case studies about the impact of the Town Center.
Who are we and what do we stand for.
We are a growing coalition of 50+ bipartisan Sammamish residents including Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, and Progressives committed to shaping a Town Center that is environmentally sustainable and fiscally responsible without unfairly burdening fixed income residents.
We value the qualities that brought us to Sammamish: lush forests and lakes, excellent schools, safe neighborhoods, trails and parks, and a community where families, pets, and neighbors can thrive.
Many of us have lived here for 10 to 50+ years and have seen the harm caused when council majorities swing too far in either political direction. We support leaders who value balance, compromise, and thoughtful decision making.
We believe the primary role of city government is to serve the public interest by providing essential services such as public safety, education, and infrastructure while supporting a healthy local economy. It is not the role of government to guarantee developers a return on investment at the expense of taxpayers.
We support measured growth with adequate infrastructure. Residents were promised a Town Center in 2008, not unchecked housing density. Despite strong public opposition, including survey results showing 92% against expansion, the previous council approved plans for 4,000 housing units without providing the data supporting claims that it will deliver affordability or sustainable retail.
We support leaders who prioritize residents first while meeting state and county requirements. Our group is fully self funded and does not accept money from political parties or developers.
In 2023, a small group of residents became concerned about the Town Center development. Because it was difficult to understand how the plans would unfold and affect Sammamish residents, we began educating ourselves and sharing information with the community. Over the following year, we met with city council members, the city manager, and planning staff, and attended city council meetings, open houses, and planning commission meetings.
Despite these efforts, we were unable to obtain the clear data needed to understand how the city's plans would ultimately come together in a sustainable, affordable, and environmentally responsible way. We were also surprised the city did not provide regular, detailed updates about the Town Center in newsletters sent to Sammamish households.
As more residents became involved, our group grew. In response to the former council's push toward 4,000 units of overdevelopment, we officially became Save Our Sammamish in 2025. We are not the Save Our Sammamish PAC listed on the PDC website; we remain a community group.
Our mission is to educate our community on the complex issues surrounding Sammamish and advocate for a thoughtful, balanced approach to housing, retail, transportation, city economic involvement, and environmental stewardship. We support policies that honor the values of current residents and prioritize responsible growth, fiscal sustainability, and protection of our wildlife, trees, watersheds, and aquifers while upholding the integrity, infrastructure, and safety of our city.
Together, we strive for a future that enhances Sammamish without compromising its character, fiscal stability, safety, our children's schools, or the quality of life of current residents.
We have, to the best of our ability, tried to present the data we have received from the city and King County. It is our intent to present the facts and data with no embellishment and in an unbiased way. We still believe that many of our residents in Sammamish are still unaware of what is actually happening in the heart of our city which will eventually encompass over 240 acres and will affect our city in a drastic way. We will continue to work for the best outcome for the residents in Sammamish, and we respect and value all input and unbiased reporting.
If you'd like to join us, please fill out this form and let us about yourself or you can find us on Facebook.
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, send us an email.
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