This blog will focus primarily on regional planning issues related to growth management in Whatcom County. My intention for this blog will be to inform, educate and provide you, the reader, with my perspective as a professional planner living here. I will keep you informed on upcoming issues and events, how to participate, and encourage substantive discussion about issues important to the quality of life in our community.
Anyone that wishes to comment on topics is welcome, but at this time I intend to review comments before they are posted to remove the absurd.
To be clear, since I currently work for the city of Bellingham, I will not comment on any issues affecting the city directly as it would be a conflict of interest for me.
Thank you, David so much for helping me keep track of what is going on. It is so difficult to keep up on everything. I have lived/farmed in rural Whatcom County for 30 years. It is so heartbreaking to watch everyone talk about avoiding sprawl; we have meetings and meetings to come up with zoning laws and long term land-use plans in order to protect the AG lands and our rural character; but then exception after exception is made by the Council and we watch the continued sprawl creep over our rural lands. Some developers know that enforcement is non-existent so they roar in and knowingly break the laws. A fine and a little stop-work order won't put the trees and wetlands back after they destroy them. So a few neighbors complain, the developer gets a little fine and maybe a delay but those wetlands and trees are already gone now and noone at the zoning department saw what was there before. So it works out way better for the developer to trash it first and deal with the problems later.
ReplyDeleteI remember attending the first public rezone meetings for the Caitac property a long time ago. David Syre of the Trillium Corp. was very involved in it then. So many people turned out and look at Cordata now. City!
I also have serious concerns about the airport expanding. I have written letters to The Port and Airport to get some idea of their long term plans. I have received only one reply from Barbara Brenner however. Have there been public meetings concerning the airport expansion and the impacts on our community that I have missed? Have any long range projections for flight frequency been made? The planes roar overhead, sometimes very low over our place on their descent into the airport. It may be time for me to move.
Then to top it off, the Council puts an EMERGENCY moratorium on Wind Generators to stop community owned wind energy projects! My goodness, it's a true emergency! A windmill might ruin our County! But rezoning and clustering our County to death with more unneeded houses and shopping areas with a tourist hotel is exactly what we need!
We live in such a special place and I watch this insanity while the sprawl continues. The County government announces it is cutting over 100 jobs because we are low on funds. But remember- Growth is good for our economy! Yeah! Right!
Sorry for length and multiple subjects here but once I got going ..........