A Year of Sprawling Achievements

First of all: do read what David wrote about Caitac.  Ships passing in the night -- I hadn't known that he blogged when I wrote this. 

The County Council is meeting tonight at 7:00 at the County Council Chambers, 311 Grand Ave., Bellingham.  Here’s a link to the agenda.  

The County Council is ending its year with a bang, not a whimper. 

Whatcom County truly outdid itself this year when it comes to sprawl.  The Ferndale Urban Growth Area debacle, the Rural Element, the piecemeal upzoning of hundreds of additional acres of property – the list goes on.

And on.  The County is proposing to expand development potential even more tonight, by (1) the unilateral, piecemeal expansion Bellingham’s Urban Growth Area in the Yew Street area, and (2) upzoning the enormous Caitac property north of Bellingham’s city limits, the subject of David's blog.

Here's my letter on both items.

Here's Dan McShane's letter on the Yew Street UGA expansion.

Here's Futurewise's letter on Caitac.

Here's Futurewise's letter on Yew Street.

The County has paid tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to defend sprawl before the Growth Management Hearings Board.  It lost most of those cases.   

If it passes these measures tonight, it will pay tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars more in its fight for sprawl.

Me?  I’d rather have those dollars go to support the Food Bank.

If you agree, come to the hearing and make your views knows.

(The picture is what comes up when you type "sprawl" into Word Clip Art.  I guess that we know it when we see it.)

UPDATE:  Read more about Yew Street here: Salish Sea Communications.

And here's a letter to the County Council from People for Lake Padden:

December 5, 2011

Re: Yew Street Rezoning Proposal

I am writing to you on behalf of the group People for Lake Padden (http://www.p4lp.org <http://www.p4lp.org/> ) requesting that the Whatcom County Council postpone action on rezoning the Yew Street neighborhood until the county has sufficient scientific and land use information to make a knowledge-based decision that protects the Lake Padden watershed and the health of Lake Padden. 

Several years ago, the Lake Padden watershed was given a watershed protection designation, the area was removed from Urban Growth Area status, and a portion of this area was rezoned as an urban reserve, in order to protect the lake from degradation.  It would therefore be unwise to undo these decisions without taking into account their potential for negative impacts on the lake.

People for Lake Padden is a citizen’s initiative which is collaborating with City, County, and University professionals to conduct scientific studies of this lake and its watershed. These studies and community discussion should inform the discussion and decisions regarding the land use designations in the watershed, education and regulatory measures to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the lake through the watershed, and any zoning or rezoning changes.

Results from these studies will be available in 2012 and shared with watershed residents and with the State DOE, the County and the City of Bellingham. It would be premature to move forward now with any rezoning until the public and the county have had the opportunity to review and discuss the findings and recommendations.

Lake Padden is one of the crown jewels enjoyed by many residents of Whatcom County and the City of Bellingham. The health of our lake is determined by how well we manage our activities as stewards of the Lake Padden watershed. Let’s wait until the studies are done to make any decisions about rezoning the Yew Street portion of the Lake Padden watershed.

Thank you,
Betsy Gross, Director
People for Lake Padden
715-1173
jbgross1@comcast.net <mailto:jbgross1@comcast.net>