Dear Sammamish City Council and City Planning commission,

We, over 50 parents of children and local residents in Sammamish, in addition to the 38 attendants in last public hearing, were recently notified of the permit application by Mary Queen of Peace Church for the temporary hosting of the Tent City 4 encampment.

We are very thankful for the notion of such a movement to help with the homeless problem and the kindness raised by the church. However, the location of this encampment has brought forth great concern by our families who are attending the schools near this encampment. In particular, the encampment is in line-of-sight distance, e.g., 2 minutes walk, to two nearby schools, one of which is the Arbor Montessori School for kids in the infant to 6 years old range.

Given the incidents that has risen in the past within Tent Cities in our surrounding cities per public record, especially the felony that was committed with the drug dealer inside the very encampment of Tent City 4 in Sammamish, it worries us that our young innocent children, who have yet to develop the full sense of safety and precautions, are exposed to such close proximities to the encampment.

It comes to our attention that permit application (THEU2017-00916) for this encampment is currently pending. We kindly ask the City of Sammamish to:

1. Postpone the approval of THEU2017-00916 until concerns herein have been addressed;

2. Suggest to Mary Queen of Peace Church, to perform more rigorous and frequent criminal warrant checks for any Tent City 4 applicants;

3. Suggest to Mary Queen of Peace Church, to hire at least 2 security guards for each of the schools in line-of-sight distances to be on patrol during school hours and sweep school grounds before and after school hours;

4. Suggest to Mary Queen of Peace Church, that if they failed to fulfill the requests above and should there be any unfavorable incidents happened again, which compromised the security and value of the Sammamish community, we parents and residents reserve all lawful rights in this regard;

5. Hold at least one more public hearing with all involved parties (residents in near vicinity and parents of children attending schools near encampment) before any further action is taken for the encampment.

We greatly appreciate your time and most of all your understanding in our situation.

We hope that the council and planning commission will hear our voices and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Parents and residents of Sammamish