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• The Sammamish City Council held its public hearing July 21, 2026 to hear feedback from the community on exemptions it was considering to the city’s Inclusionary Affordable Housing Program.
• After discussion from the dais including two failed amendments, the Council voted 5-2 to adopt a package that fully exempts home additions, remodels, and involuntary rebuilds.
• The new policy raises the exemption threshold for new construction to 1,750 square feet, and applies the fee only to floor area above that threshold.

The City Council wants to close the budget deficit that will hit Sammamish in 2029. The choices they make will affect every Sammamish resident, via increased taxes, decreased services, or both.

Of all the articles I’ve written for Sammamish Local News, this is probably the most important for residents to read. The decisions made by the City Council are going to directly affect you. The City Council is also asking you, Sammamish residents, for input by taking this Community Pulse survey by July 31, 2026.

The City of Sammamish says it fired City Clerk Krista Kielsmeier for insubordination and discourtesy — and, among the “aggravating factors” it cited, her “continued views on the performance pay topic — even after the realities around it were explained.”

That language appears in the City’s May 13 Answer to Kielsmeier’s wrongful-termination lawsuit, a filing that denies her firing had anything to do with the wage discussions at the center of her Complaint — discussions Washington law specifically protects.