Snoqualmie City Council OKs development agreement for Ridge hotel; site work to start this summer

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, March 21, 2017

At well-attended public hearing on the proposed development of a hotel in Snoqualmie Ridge March 13, the Snoqualmie City Council authorized the Mayor to sign a development agreement with the owners of the four-acre property, Chun Lai Hospitality, LLC.

The developers intend the construction project to be a four story, 90-room hotel and a separate mixed-use retail building on the corner of SE Center Street and Snoqualmie Parkway. The hotel, which will sit on Lot 20 of the Snoqualmie Ridge Business Park, will have a fifth story below the first floor in the space created as the property slopes downhill.

The council also approved amendments to the Snoqualmie Ridge Mixed Use Final Plan, Snoqualmie Ridge Development Standards and Business Park Binding Site Improvement Plan to allow the development of the hotel project.

These amendments included the reduction of the 50-foot buffer from Snoqualmie Parkway to a 15-foot average, allowance for right-turn-in, right-turn-out access from the Parkway and an amendment to allow buildings of five stories if the maximum height does not exceed 60 feet.

Construction is expected to begin near the end of summer this year. The developers said if everything goes smoothly, the hotel could be complete within 18 months.

More than 20 Snoqualmie residents voiced their opinion on the proposed development project at the public hearing. While almost all of the speakers thought a hotel would be a benefit to the city, most disagreed with the chosen location for the project. Citizens cited a variety of reasons for their opposition, including the removal of trees, the preservation of Snoqualmie’s small-town characteristics and scenic beauty, the possible crime and drugs a hotel could bring and negative impacts to traffic coming from the I-90 and S.R. 18 interchange.

“I’m completely for a hotel, I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s an absolutely horrible location for all the reasons that have been expressed,” said Snoqualmie resident Troy Moore.

“My biggest issue though, is traffic. The timing of this is most concerning to me. Ten years from now, when the I-90, 18 interchange is some day fixed, this could be a potential option… I don’t think we really should expect we can handle that amount of traffic coming down the interchange at this point in time.”

Others in attendance spoke in support of the project. Snoqualmie’s Economic Development Commission Chairperson Carolyn Simpson and commission member Rob Wotton both voiced their support at the hearing. Simpson, reading a letter from the commission to the city council, said the EDC supported the project and voted unanimously to recommend it.

“We, the commission, believe that a hotel development in the business park with consideration given to its appearance, its opportunity for success, and its complementary impact… would make a positive impact to the business, tourism, and residential segments of our community and would be consistent with our comprehensive plan,” she said.

Before voting, city council members asked the developers about various topics the citizens had brought up in the public hearing, one of which was the possibility of increased transients bringing crime and drugs to an area that is close to two elementary schools and many homes.

Snoqualmie Police Chief Perry Phipps was asked about his experience working in communities with hotels and what kind of police services they required. Phipps said the hotel project is in a good location from a police services aspect because it is visible, and close to the Police Department.

“When you put in a business in a community like this, it is … the brand and the location, that dictate what type of police services will have to go to that location,” Phipps said. “If it’s upper scale, obviously it’s going to need less police services. Typically if it is a visible location it’s got less police services required.”

The council asked about which hotel franchise would be operating in that building, because the price of services offered at the hotel could attract different demographics. Some citizens worried that a hotel could attract the transient community and bring drugs and crime closer to the Ridge.

Gil Hulsmann, civil engineer of the project, said the hotel would be a Hampton Inn with its own security along with other modern features, in a price range that would not attract the transient community.

“The rates here are $149 to $199. They are a national chain, that’s what they expect. (Guests) are typically business people coming in or families on the weekends for two or three nights,” he said.

“The type of people that will be coming in won’t be the transient, won’t be the guy walking down the street looking for a room at night.”

Regarding a question about increased traffic, Carmen Kwan, transportation engineer from Fehr and Peers, said in their independent traffic study, trip generation, site access, parking demand, and intersection levels of service were examined.

“Overall we found that the trip generation for this proposed development is within the trip threshold studied in the Snoqualmie Ridge 1 EIS, so this development is consistent with that Environmental Impact Statement,” she said.

The city council unanimously voted to approved both the amendments and the development agreement.

Snoqualmie Community Development Director Mark Hofman said that with the approval of the amendments and the development agreements, the next steps are the mixed-use consistency review, design review, building permit review, and a civil engineering review. These steps need to be taken before any construction can begin.

The various permit, design and code reviews can take six or seven weeks, but once they are complete the developers can begin site improvements, which Hofman expects will begin by summer, before moving into construction during the winter.

“Site work, then a year of construction in 12 to 18 months,” he said. “They want to be open before the height of summer 2018.”