EDITORIAL: Community Growing Pains Require More Leadership

By The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

Jan. 8–Pity the elected officials of our community who must try and balance the community’s desires to protect our current way of life with predictions of continued growth.

We challenge all of them to step up and demand more and denser growth within our cities and reject sprawl into our burdened rural areas.

That fight — growing within so we don’t grow out — is a constant battle in Whatcom County these days.

Two recent local stories help highlight the needs:

–Columbia Valley: County officials announced recently that they would not require an environmental impact statement for a proposed 767-home development in the Columbia Valley, between Kendall and Sumas.

There should not be 767 more homes and condominiums in the Columbia Valley. At 767 homes, the Balfour Village development would be the largest development in rural Whatcom County since Cordata was started outside of Bellingham in the 1980s. The development is located in a wooded and rural area, miles from any services, and will require residents to make long drives down two-road highways to jobs and schools and urban offerings. The proposal is, without question, the worst example of sprawl we have heard in years.

In fact it is worse than sprawl. Sprawl usually indicates a city growing out and gobbling up rural lands as it expands its boundaries with subdivision after subdivision. But there is no city in the Columbia Valley. And allowing such a huge subdivision so far from city services can’t make sense to anyone thinking logically.

Unfortunately officials are between a rock and a hard place in the Columbia Valley. There are already more than 2,500 people living in the Peaceful Valley and Paradise developments in the area. Because of that the Valley was designated an “urban growth area” by county officials.

The developments in the area were originally built as weekend and holiday getaways appealing mostly to well-off Canadians. But as has happened in Sudden Valley, the homes have eventually been sold to year-round residents — part of the appeal being they are generally less expensive than homes in other parts of the county.

It is true that the Columbia Valley needs the stores, offices, parks, trails and a site for a school, fire state and regional community resources center the developer promises.

But leadership requires county officials do what they can to limit the size of this development, urban growth area or no. Otherwise the entire county will end up paying in terms of police presence, traffic backups and other growth-related costs that come when sprawl is allowed to occur.

–FAIRHAVEN: The Fairhaven Neighbors association has asked city of Bellingham officials to limit new buildings in Fairhaven to 45 feet tall in the core of the historic business district and 35 feet in areas surrounding the core. They claim their goal is not to limit growth, but to preserve Fairhaven as a walkable neighborhood.

Limiting building height in the center of the Fairhaven district is a poor idea. And despite group members’ assurances about their intentions, having a height limit will limit growth in the neighborhood and force growth into other parts of the city and county.

We understand the love of Fairhaven. It is a unique and wonderful shopping and walking district with a history distinct from the rest of Bellingham.

It is also a place where there has always been commercial and residential activity in buildings much bigger than the surrounding areas. It is a “city within a city.” And city officials should treat it as such.

We don’t believe that means that someone will come forward with a proposal for a 25-story building in the district anytime soon. Common sense and real estate financing both make that idea unrealistic at this time.

But we believe it is better for the future of our county to have another 10-story building in Fairhaven with many condominiums and/or apartments, than it is to have 50 or 100 new single-family homes built on five-acre lots in rural Whatcom County.

There should be more tall buildings in the district in the future, not fewer. More people should live and work there. Preferably they won’t have cars and will be able to walk to stores and restaurants and entertainment options.

The benefits of that type of development over more single-family homes in a sprawling suburbia are tremendous. Traffic is reduced and mass transit is possible within a smaller area. Less wear is put on roads and there is less demand for expensive road widening and signaling projects. Businesses can grow and prosper, bringing new offerings to serve the growing market of village dwellers.

Fairhaven is already an urban village. It needs to continue to grow as one. Limiting heights in the center of the district is the exact opposite of what city leaders should be doing to address growth.

Unfortunately leadership in our community on these issues has been lacking. Just last year the Bellingham City Council voted to add more than 2,000 acres of currently rural land to the city’s urban growth area. The County Council is still considering whether to back that plan.

Then the City Council voted to decrease zoning rules in the York Neighborhood that would have allowed more dense housing to be built in that neighborhood right next to downtown. And plans to create more urban villages in areas of the city that could use redevelopment, such as along Samish Way, sit on shelves waiting for neighborhood plans and for city officials to make rules to force those redevelopments to start.

Meanwhile dozens of new homes are being built in rural areas every year.

Saving the character of Whatcom County will take brave leaders who perhaps care more about the community than in getting re-elected.

We are in an important time on growth issues in our community. Decisions need to be made that make this a better place to live five, 10 and 25 years from now. Everyone says they don’t want our area to turn into the sprawl we all see in King or Snohomish counties, yet the political will seems to be missing.

Growth is like a constant drip. It has not stopped while officials ponder and make decisions that seem to contradict the very things they say they stand for.

Being a strong leader willing to do what’s right for the community, particularly if it means upsetting a vocal minority group, is hard for any person, including a politician, to do. Yet it’s what we need most in our community right now.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

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