Ways to Grow

Community Recreation Center Needed!

Please for the health and well being our community, build and indoor rec center with gyms, workout areas, pool, ice arena, and other services. People of all ages, generations, and abilities need a place to connect, learn, grow and exercise. It is for the greater health and well being of our community!

People-friendly design, not car-oriented high-density jungles

So far, Bham's budding urban villages are too car oriented and do not integrate much needed tree canopy into the high-density site plans. Instead, the development plans are maxed out for maximum profit!!

Implement a dark skies initiative, especially in residential neighborhoods.

Wildlife needs dark skies. People need to see stars. Encourage residents to let the night be dark.

Balance Between Regulation and Housing

There needs to be better balanced discussions between regulatory efforts and the goals we want to achieve. You can't claim "housing crisis," and then implement 5 new regulatory schemes that all raise the cost of providing housing.

Include UVs but don’t focus there exclusively.

Focusing all new housing into urban villages (the relatively small percentage of residential land) raises the cost of that land & thus raises the costs of the housing. Seems like it also calls for investment/development from corporations outside the city – which is not desirable from a “buy local” or local control perspective. It puts all the housing eggs in one basket.

form-based codes

Form-based codes would enable 15 minute walk to work and coffee shop and stores etc. These allow mixed uses and are not auto-centric. They can enable building on demand as long as it fits the forms, which are designed to ensure neighborhoods that look great and function well (like the ones we admire in European cities).

Proximity to commercial & other services within neighborhoods – yes!

There’s lot of talk about rehabbing houses for people to age in place, this expands the concept to aging in place/the neighborhood. So, as people age out of driving, they can still be independent. Many neighborhoods are isolated from this easy access. // But, it would be blight if they required more surface parking lots. Two important notes: 15 minute cities need to include all income levels. Glad you are talking about nodes or 15 minute city since “walkable” is exclusive of people using wheelchairs.

Eliminate minimum parking requirements

These add $20,000 - $80,000 to the cost of every housing unit, they promote dependence on automobiles, they jack up rents. Other cities are doing away with them, most recently Austin. For more on this, https://whatcomhousingalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Parking-Report-Final-Draft-6.6.22.pdf and https://www.whatcomdemocrats.org/_files/ugd/fe4445_7406e1aef9c045c1a2e3cd098b1f4802.pdf.

Smaller, well curated grocery stores within neighborhoods would be a game changer!! Especially with zero to little car parking.

Erase the food deserts!

form-based codes

Form-based codes would enable 15 minute walk to work and coffee shop and stores etc. These allow mixed uses and are not auto-centric. They can enable building on demand as long as it fits the forms, which are designed to ensure neighborhoods that look great and function well (like the ones we admire in European cities). For more: https://www.whatcomdemocrats.org/_files/ugd/fe4445_e60a6ae59bb041759b83f28b861987c2.pdf

Require & fund residential protections from noise and particulate pollution.

Problem is our current corridors are stroads – very unpleasant for having a conversation on the sidewalk or waiting for the bus a few feet from speeding drivers. Besides the noise pollution, there’s also the soot that accumulates in buildings that face the main corridor. We need to include funding for housing that has enhanced protection from noise & particle pollution.

Use Safe Systems principles to improve corridor safety for all users.

These corridors need to be restructured according to Safe Systems principles – including more assertive street designs: using narrower drive lanes so that drivers are directed to drive at safer speeds, numerous raised crossings, tight corner radii, no right-turn-on-red, and more. (USDOT)

Right now the city as a whole is not walk-able & is very car-oriented. These corridors will help create a lively, walkable transition to DT.

Corridors sound car focused. Samish Way is still dangerous for all non car traffic. I'm really not convinced this would be a great solution.

Gotta make motorists feel uncomfortable first....

Corridors create connection

Focusing on corridors create connection across neighborhoods and encourages walking. I think it's a great idea!

Level up every neighborhood

If we want private development, crime prevention, and a sense of belonging to the greater city, don't leave any neighborhood behind.

In order to create a better Bham, we need to uplift all of our community, especially those currently underserved!

Expanding the UGA is not needed.

There is plenty of land for higher density housing and to focus development on creating vibrant urban villages and encouraging development of distributed nodes. We have vacant and under-utilized spaces within the UGA. Much of it is private land and owners need to be strong encouraged through smart taxation to develop the land in ways that are useful for our city and fit our goals. Much of the "old-new" development is completely car-centric and extremely inefficient. It needs to be converted before we expand the UGA.

Repurpose and renew and improve existing buildings/areas before adding more concrete/everything. Larger areas=worse traffic and congestion.

I love Bellingham because it has less urban sprawl than other cities in the Puget Sound area. Keeping true to that feels important.

Consider the consequences for future generations

This is a choice that would continue to create a financial burden for all of us, as well as exacerbate our climate change situation. Just looking across the water at Victoria, their population within the city limits is similar to Bellingham’s on less than half the land. They are able to do so much more with their transportation infrastructure budget (similar $ amount for active transportation) because they aren’t having to cover so much territory.

This seems counterproductive to sustainability