Sammamish (city)

The plateau east of Lake Sammamish sat in King County without a city of its own for a long time [1]. Snoqualmie people had lived around the lake well before scattered settlers began reaching the plateau in the 1870s and 1880s [1]. Three resorts once worked the southern half near Pine Lake and Beaver Lake, and all of them were gone by 1970 [1]. Early in the 1970s the plateau's population passed five thousand [1]. A 1991 vote to annex the southern half to Issaquah failed, and Redmond's long-range plan to take the northern half was argued over and then dropped [1]. In 1992 voters turned down forming a new city, 58.4 to 41.6 percent [1]. Sentiment shifted, and on November 3, 1998, incorporation passed 63.2 to 36.8 percent [1]. The city formally incorporated at midnight on August 31, 1999, with about 28,000 residents [1]. Around a thousand people gathered days earlier at Bill Reams East Sammamish Park for a celebration called Sammamish Day [1]. City hall opened at Sammamish Commons in August 2006 [1].