1
00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:25,920
All right.
Uh

2
00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:31,640
welcome to the
tonight's meeting, May 21st, 2026

3
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:34,720
of the Bellingham City Planning
Commission.

4
00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:39,120
I'm filling in for the chair and vice
chair tonight. So, Heather, can you

5
00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,120
please call the roll?

6
00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:48,240
Claire Swingle.
Here. Mike Estes. Here. Eric Richmond.

7
00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,240
Here. Lisa Marks. Here.

8
00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:56,240
Um I don't think no minutes.
And

9
00:00:54,280 --> 00:01:01,600
uh so, tonight's agenda is a work
session, I believe, on um

10
00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:07,320
general strategy for changes to
residential zoning related to the comp

11
00:01:04,199 --> 00:01:11,520
plan and state law changes, missing
middle implementation details

12
00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:15,240
around our residential zoning. Uh so,
we'll get into a conversation and

13
00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:19,040
presentation from staff on that topic in
a few minutes. Before we do that,

14
00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:24,040
um
opportunity for the public to give any

15
00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:26,920
general public comments um
on any topic. So, if you're here to give

16
00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:30,680
public comment, come on down to the
podium. We'll do 3 minutes.

17
00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:35,800
Um tonight doesn't have a hearing, so
there's no other opportunity to give uh

18
00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:39,040
public comment on anything.
If you're on Zoom, please raise your

19
00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:43,320
hand.
And um

20
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:48,320
we'll do 3 minutes and state your name
and your neighborhood and

21
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:51,720
Heather will uh bring you in to do
comments.

22
00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:55,000
Go ahead, Miles.
Hello, Miles Silverman from the Cordata

23
00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:59,320
neighborhood. I'm calling in to talk
about the new zoning changes and

24
00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:02,880
specifically single stair or scissor
stairs small apartment buildings because

25
00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:08,679
my understanding is that there are state
level building code changes happening

26
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:12,520
and underway to make these more feasible
to build than they have been in a long

27
00:02:10,399 --> 00:02:17,080
time and this presents a huge
opportunity that the new residential

28
00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:22,480
zoning code low middle and high should
all be jumping on and I want to explain

29
00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:27,959
why that is. Um, first of all these
small apartments are often better to

30
00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:32,160
live in because there's you don't have
to do the double loaded corridor thing.

31
00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:37,200
There's more light, more air. It's
easier to do family size apartments and

32
00:02:34,959 --> 00:02:42,160
because the individual buildings are
relatively small, it can be easier to

33
00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:50,440
know your neighbors within your
building. Um, it also these smaller

34
00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:54,600
apartments also can fit more easily into
existing residential neighborhoods to

35
00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:59,959
reduce neighborhood opposition. The
buildings are very human scale. They fit

36
00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:03,200
They fit well into the rhythm of any
streetscape and particularly if paired

37
00:03:02,239 --> 00:03:07,640
with
thoughtful objective design standards,

38
00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:14,160
they work really well with vernacular
architecture as well. So, again, great

39
00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:20,680
for fitting into existing old street
grid neighborhoods. Um, they're also

40
00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:25,120
more feasible to build more quickly. You
because they're smaller, you only need

41
00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:28,600
one lot. Um, so you don't need to buy up
a bunch of houses which could take more

42
00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:34,120
time. Because they're smaller, that also
makes them easier to finance which means

43
00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:38,800
that you don't need to rely on large
investment banks to fund them which

44
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:44,160
should mean in addition to making them
quicker to build, this should also mean

45
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:48,560
they're more resilient to the state of
international finance. They also of

46
00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:54,440
course have all the benefits of density
that we would expect. More housing with

47
00:03:51,800 --> 00:04:02,480
a single stair four-story building with
three units per floor, you could easily

48
00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:07,840
be doing basically a 12-plex on a
lot where you used to only be able to

49
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:12,640
put one house. If with a larger lot and
six stories with scissor stairs, you

50
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:16,720
could possibly do twice that. This means
that you can really help with the

51
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:20,799
housing shortage quickly with these
buildings, um better support

52
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:25,800
neighborhood commercial, and better
support transit, and better support city

53
00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:30,720
budgets. So, all in all, small apartment
buildings can be a great tool to help

54
00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:35,600
solve this housing shortage while
improving our neighborhoods. So, please

55
00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:40,240
make sure there's space for these in the
new zoning code to take advantage of

56
00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:42,363
building codes now allowing them. Thank
you. [clears throat]

57
00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:49,440
Thank you, Miles.
Anyone else on Zoom for public comment?

58
00:04:55,919 --> 00:05:01,520
Last call in-house, in person, for
public comment.

59
00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:08,560
Seeing none. Okay, we will close our
public comment portion,

60
00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:11,680
and I'll turn it over to Chris and staff
for our presentation.

61
00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:19,840
All right. Good evening, commissioners.
Thanks for being here tonight.

62
00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:19,840
Let's see if I can turn this.

63
00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:29,000
All right. Uh so, Chris Behee, uh I'm
long-range division manager in planning

64
00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:34,200
and community development. I'm joined
tonight by Chris Cook, who's

65
00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:39,400
our planner, who's
well-versed over many years in the

66
00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:43,760
depths of our residential housing code.
Um so, he's here to answer questions

67
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:47,120
that might get down further in the weeds
than I'm comfortable going.

68
00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:51,120
Um
As we indicated earlier in um in the

69
00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:55,040
description, uh we are talking about
kind of general high-level zoning

70
00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:58,200
concepts. Over the past several months,
you've had briefings on some of the

71
00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:01,840
interim measures and a few of the
permanent measures that were passed near

72
00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:05,960
the end of last year that dovetail with
the comprehensive plan that implement

73
00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:10,960
the variety of state requirements that
were passed in 2023 and 2024 around

74
00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:16,520
middle housing, accessory dwelling
units, co-living housing, um and uh and

75
00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:18,040
also the parking reform
uh

76
00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:21,720
um
uh

77
00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:25,280
interim measures. So, uh this is kind of
the next step in that conversation. It's

78
00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:28,520
again a little bit of a high-level
briefing, but we'll get down in the

79
00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:33,160
weeds on a few of the topics.
Um and in advance of this and then after

80
00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:38,080
this uh internal staff teams in our
department have been working for the

81
00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:42,240
last several months on the strategy for
the new residential zoning. Um and so,

82
00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:46,960
we'll be covering again some kind of
contextual pieces for that and then

83
00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:50,919
asking for thoughts and and uh feedback
from you on a couple of specific things.

84
00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:55,960
Uh and then you can anticipate over the
next year that we will be coming back to

85
00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:59,800
you a variety of times for similar uh
more feedback on these things as we as

86
00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:04,240
we work our way through them and then
eventually what will have is a that type

87
00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:07,640
six process as we bring forward the new
residential zoning code that that

88
00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:12,760
includes a lot of what we'll be talking
about tonight, but also all that the

89
00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,760
detail for the pieces.

90
00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:19,680
So, we'll talk about some of the
background and history behind the rules

91
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:23,520
that we have today. Um and then again,
the policy direction we'll touch on uh a

92
00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:29,120
lot of you're familiar cuz you had a
hand in developing the Bellingham Plan.

93
00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:32,600
Um just touch base on on a few specific
pieces there related to the future land

94
00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:36,280
use map. I'll review some of the
community feedback from the surveys that

95
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:40,040
we conducted during the the Bellingham
Plan public engagement process that

96
00:07:37,919 --> 00:07:44,480
relate just a a few of the touch points
that are specifically related to housing

97
00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:48,120
types, densities, the nature of
residential zoning,

98
00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:51,640
and what the community's preferences,
concerns,

99
00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:55,760
those kinds of things were.
We'll just focus on the map for a few

100
00:07:53,720 --> 00:08:01,240
minutes and walk through some of the
geography of how today's existing zoning

101
00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:05,040
map relates to the future land use map
and then what we anticipate these future

102
00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:10,520
residential zones will look like.
And how some things might be changing

103
00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:13,680
categories or shifting shifting around.
We'll look a little bit at some of the

104
00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:16,680
the statistics.
Won't spend too much time on that, but

105
00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:20,120
just kind of give you a a primer on what
some of the existing platting patterns

106
00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:24,440
are throughout the city and how those
relate to residential densities and

107
00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,880
zoning.
And then again, we'll have a couple of

108
00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,720
things we'll touch base on near the end
to get some feedback and generate some

109
00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:33,919
conversation
so that'll help us inform again the the

110
00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:36,520
ongoing work that our our team is
working on.

111
00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:42,200
I think this is a slide we showed you
guys

112
00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:45,120
a year or two ago during the the
process. It's something that was

113
00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:48,960
developed quite a while ago and we
updated it, but it's not something to

114
00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:53,320
spend too much time staring at, but it
kind of it basically from left to right

115
00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:57,320
kind of gives you that that long history
we've had of zoning in Bellingham. Our

116
00:08:55,680 --> 00:09:01,040
first zoning ordinance was passed in the
1940s

117
00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:06,280
and before that we'd had
regulations that were more general in

118
00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:11,040
nature. You can see the the evolution of
the the

119
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:16,000
25 neighborhood plans that Bellingham
developed in the 1980s.

120
00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:20,160
In the 1990s, we had the Visions for
Bellingham process that fed into our

121
00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:25,920
first growth management comprehensive
plan. That was the 1995

122
00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:31,760
1995 plan and then we've updated that
plan three times since then in 2006,

123
00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:34,160
2016, and then most recently just this
last year.

124
00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:38,600
Um
And then there's been a variety of uh

125
00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:42,800
broader community discussions around
growth that uh were actually outside of

126
00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:47,440
those comprehensive planning cycles, but
but informed them and related to them.

127
00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:51,560
Uh the most notable that I'll talk about
in a few more minutes uh in another

128
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:54,680
slide is that community forum on growth
in the early 2000s. That was a point

129
00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:57,480
where
Bellingham had and while of Whatcom

130
00:09:56,120 --> 00:10:01,280
County had been growing much like
Western Washington as a whole at a

131
00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:05,080
pretty steady clip through the 1990s,
and by the end of the '90s and the early

132
00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:10,200
2000s, we were really feeling a lot of
those infrastructure pressures. And so

133
00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:14,760
we we uh along with Whatcom County and
Whatcom Transportation Authority uh

134
00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:19,280
spun up a a community-wide conversation
on growth. So, that was a a significant

135
00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:22,640
kind of a watershed moment and was a
kind of a pivot point for our local land

136
00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:27,680
use policies.
Um and then you can see again just this

137
00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:30,840
doesn't show anything by show all of the
the things uh

138
00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:35,680
but it does show that there's this been
this very busy time within the last say

139
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:41,240
2 to 3 years of uh
very uh um aggressive state legislative

140
00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:44,000
sessions and then a lot of local uh
things handed down to local

141
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:48,680
jurisdictions to include in our comp
plans and implement. And you are keenly

142
00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:52,680
aware of that of having been through the
again the recent comp plan update

143
00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:52,680
process.

144
00:10:54,600 --> 00:11:01,560
So, again just to kind of hit the the
main pieces that have been driving a lot

145
00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:05,920
of this change um were again some of
those house bills and Senate bills that

146
00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:10,360
were passed uh a couple of years ago by
the state. Um the main ones being that

147
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:14,760
House Bill 1110, which is the the middle
housing bill, 1337, which is the

148
00:11:12,680 --> 00:11:16,720
accessory dwelling unit bill.
And then we've got um

149
00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:23,440
uh
1998, which was the co-living, and then

150
00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:28,000
House Bill 1293 is that uh design review
uh and permit streamlining bill. All of

151
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:31,960
those together are really what was
addressed in that November-December push

152
00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:36,640
as we had those either permanent or
interim measures that were um brought

153
00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:40,560
forward and and passed along with the
Bellingham plan.

154
00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:45,440
In general, if you were to look at those
from a very high level, it's it's a

155
00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:48,560
shift from the sort of I guess binary is
a good way of thinking about it,

156
00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:51,840
residential single residential multi
land use model that we've had for

157
00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:56,680
decades in Bellingham and which a lot of
communities have had and really going

158
00:11:54,360 --> 00:12:00,440
for a more towards a more inclusive
model which includes certainly

159
00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:05,520
residential single and the larger multi
forms as well, but also in the middle

160
00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:10,640
those middle housing styles that kind of
continue or fill in that spectrum of

161
00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:15,440
housing between the larger buildings and
single detached forms and also include

162
00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:19,760
just
a wider variety of smaller housing forms

163
00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:24,040
whether they be smaller cottages and
just small lot single family development

164
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,960
or the duplexes, townhomes and other
attached forms.

165
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:39,280
And just reflecting back to the main
kind of policy areas within the

166
00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:42,880
Bellingham plan that this more inclusive
more broad type of zoning that we're

167
00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:46,880
talking about and we'll be talking about
more

168
00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:52,040
throughout the evening here really hits
on a on kind of four main policy areas.

169
00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:56,640
One is the the idea of housing for all
meeting that House Bill 1220 requirement

170
00:12:54,800 --> 00:13:00,360
where we plan for housing for all income
segments in the community.

171
00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:04,440
Providing really just more opportunities
and more options for people whether it

172
00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:08,520
be owner oriented or rental style
housing.

173
00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:12,760
Overall, we're looking for that compact
development form really trying to keep

174
00:13:10,839 --> 00:13:16,920
Bellingham's boundary from growing out
as much as possible

175
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:21,160
for again for
meeting our climate action goals

176
00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:25,200
reducing carbon emissions reducing not
just the number of trips people need to

177
00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:29,080
take but recognizing that vehicle trips
are a necessary part of all of our lives

178
00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:33,680
at various times that we can maybe keep
those trips to be as short as possible

179
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:37,720
by connecting where people live and
having housing being closer to services

180
00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:41,920
and those kinds of things. Again, that
direct relationship between density and

181
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:46,280
kind of efficiency that way.
Um environmental protection um through a

182
00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:50,000
whole variety of things. One, again, not
expanding our our community footprint,

183
00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:54,960
so kind of the big like countywide
picture, having fewer impacts on those

184
00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:58,440
rural and resource lands. And then also
um just within the city doing things

185
00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:02,800
like using clustering to kind of
strategically place development in areas

186
00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:06,760
that has minimal environmental impacts
and leaves natural areas natural to the

187
00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:11,080
greatest degree possible. Provides that
protection there.

188
00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:14,280
And then sustainable urban services. Um
if you've again listened to any of the

189
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:18,320
conversations, particularly around
annexation,

190
00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:23,240
uh the cost to not just put pipes in the
ground and build streets, but also to

191
00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:28,680
provide public safety services um and
all the the related uh elements of of

192
00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:32,800
maintenance of city facilities. Um the
greater distance that we have to travel

193
00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:36,200
or the more miles of those facilities
that we need to maintain, just it's a

194
00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:40,839
greater burden that the entire community
bears. The the closer we can get people

195
00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:44,880
living to services and the closer to
each other, all of those [snorts] things

196
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:48,800
are made more efficient and they they
can be smaller. So just the again the

197
00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:51,520
the cost model that goes along with
that.

198
00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:55,200
So those are just again just kind of
connecting the dots. It's intuitive, but

199
00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:58,240
it's helpful to just vocalize that and
really point it out that those are all

200
00:14:56,560 --> 00:15:02,080
very intentional choices that our
community has made. Um and a lot of

201
00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:07,400
those code updates on those timelines
relate to

202
00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:07,400
uh those four things in particular.

203
00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:16,520
This is that again hearkening back to
2004 and then um when we had those uh

204
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:19,560
community conversations. If if some of
you in the room may remember those, but

205
00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:22,600
if you if you can imagine the
Bellingham's

206
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:25,960
uh Bellingham High School's auditorium,
which you know, seats over 1,000 people.

207
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:30,720
We had that packed on a number of
occasions during those community forum

208
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:34,840
on growth conversations and had large
large cross-sections of the community

209
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:38,640
there to learn um get kind of the same
kind of information that you as planning

210
00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:42,000
commissioners get on a frequent basis,
gain a better understanding of how land

211
00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:48,160
use and transportation intersect and
inform each other um and uh to kind of

212
00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:52,080
portray in that early 2000s context what
growth pressures Bellingham and Whatcom

213
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:55,120
County as a whole were feeling
and to ponder those things and to come

214
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:58,640
up with uh
with potential solutions that we could

215
00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:01,520
use as a community.
Um

216
00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:05,240
after those conversations, a couple
years later, uh Bellingham hosted the

217
00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:08,200
Bellingham Planning Academy sessions,
which were smaller, more focused growth

218
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:12,120
sessions, again with a good
cross-section of the community.

219
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:15,840
And the conversations that came out of
that effort really were sort of the the

220
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:19,880
early stages of what would eventually
become the Infill Toolkit that

221
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:25,920
Bellingham then uh formally got into the
Bellingham Municipal Code in uh 2009.

222
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:30,440
So, it was a kind of a evolving organic
community conversation about how we

223
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:33,720
address those growth pressures.
And then the other key thing that came

224
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:37,839
out of both the for the the growth
management uh community forum on growth

225
00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:41,640
and then also those planning academy
conversations was the urban village

226
00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:46,280
concept. Um and [snorts] that would
played right into the 2006 comprehensive

227
00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:51,080
plan update when we formally adopted
those those urban village concepts and

228
00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:55,400
then those later became urban village
master plans over the the ensuing

229
00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:55,400
decade.

230
00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:03,560
This is another timeline with a lot of a
lot going on on it, but if you just um

231
00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:07,480
again, it's really just uh to indicate
that Bellingham has been heading in this

232
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:10,880
direction for quite some time and that
while there's a lot of change that we're

233
00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:15,920
having to digest as a community in the
last few years around middle housing, um

234
00:17:13,839 --> 00:17:20,280
that that the um
the direction is not new. It's just

235
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:24,319
a a greater emphasis on it in the last
few years. And you can see again this

236
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:29,600
kind of takes off where the previous
slides left off that 2006 comprehensive

237
00:17:27,319 --> 00:17:33,400
plan and those early [clears throat]
conversations that we looking at the

238
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:40,200
just the green things here. We passed in
2009 the initial infill toolkit. Um

239
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:43,720
Originally it applied only in the
residential multi and urban village

240
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:47,800
zones.
And that really didn't have a a great

241
00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:51,520
deal of uptake for the a number of
years. There were people were unfamiliar

242
00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:55,800
with the code. There weren't as many
builders in town that were familiar with

243
00:17:53,040 --> 00:18:00,680
middle housing forms. Um took a while
for people to understand that code and

244
00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:04,320
get used to it. Around 2014-15
we started to see the first few projects

245
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:10,040
come through that were utilizing that
code. Um and then you know by 2018 or so

246
00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:13,160
there were quite a few projects that we
were seeing land in different

247
00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:19,600
neighborhoods utilizing the toolkit
code. In 2018 along with the update to

248
00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:24,760
our subdivision code that the
application for the infill toolkit the

249
00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:28,200
area was expanded into residential
single zones that had the cluster

250
00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:32,320
provision. So that included a lot of the
areas in North Bellingham where we had

251
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:37,120
annexed land in recent years and then
also some areas around the edge that had

252
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:40,840
the the cluster provision in them. So
that was an expansion.

253
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:45,120
And then in 2021 there was a really
significant update to a lot of details

254
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:48,440
in the code around pedestrian oriented
design.

255
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:51,880
And that was a a big improvement as well
again based on experience learned

256
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:55,880
through previous projects brought
through that that code and then just

257
00:18:53,560 --> 00:19:00,120
kind of planning best practices.
And then most recently the adoption of

258
00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:04,520
the interim middle housing ordinance in
December

259
00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:10,000
that that really expanded that citywide
and aligned us with House Bill 1110

260
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:15,640
where we're requiring up to or we're
allowing rather up to four

261
00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:20,560
four homes per lot or six if they're in
proximity to transit or provide an

262
00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:23,320
affordability component. Um
The other things on here I'm not going

263
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:28,280
to dwell on a lot, but you can see the
urban village plans after that 2006

264
00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:33,280
comprehensive plan with the kind of
formalized urban village concept.

265
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:37,000
We had a variety of extended public
conversations for each of these

266
00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:41,400
districts most recently just this last
year for the Barkley area formalizing

267
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:46,400
that in an urban village
code update. Um but you can see each of

268
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:50,080
these took a year or two to finish.
There was a lot of public outreach and

269
00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:53,760
engagement as we had a different
visioning process for each of those.

270
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:58,800
As you're familiar with these areas,
they all have similarities as being

271
00:19:56,360 --> 00:20:03,720
being areas of increased urban density
and intensity, but also they all have

272
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:08,080
very unique characters and their own own
unique aspects to them.

273
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:13,080
And so the conversations varied for each
of those areas as well.

274
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:16,480
Um and then again just calling attention
there's a few things you can see also in

275
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:21,160
here are various multimodal
infrastructure plans getting initialized

276
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:25,400
and then updated throughout this time
period and our climate action plan.

277
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:29,680
Those things all all again kind of
getting into those four points on the

278
00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:33,440
previous slide all playing together to
kind of form our community-wide growth

279
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:37,520
strategy aiming for being more
sustainable, more efficient,

280
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,600
and and providing opportunities for
people around the city.

281
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:46,800
So again just kind of a talking point to
show how a lot of those things relate to

282
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:51,120
each other and how we've had this steady
progression of of um

283
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,520
kind of evolvement on the land use
front.

284
00:20:54,760 --> 00:21:01,040
Also just as as you know we've had
conversations over the past couple years

285
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:04,840
about the 25 neighborhood plans that
importantly were were not adopted under

286
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:08,760
the
most recent comprehensive plan this last

287
00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:11,800
December. They had been under previous
ones.

288
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:16,880
And that's really just largely out of um
one recognition that the the zoning that

289
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:21,480
is um
uh envisioned within those plans is not

290
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:25,880
consistent with our new middle housing
and uh middle housing regulations and

291
00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:28,920
other state requirements.
Um

292
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:33,440
Also, again, uh just from a practical
standpoint, they represent a uh

293
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:37,160
a complexity in our zoning code that is
just not sustainable for us to manage

294
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:42,560
anymore or for the community to really
use in a in an efficient way. And so,

295
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:46,560
for all those reasons, um we decided at
that point to uh retire the plans

296
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:50,720
themselves.
Um that's not to say they have not been

297
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:54,400
enormously valuable over the past number
of decades as Bellingham has grown and

298
00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:59,160
thrived. Um
I think what we've we've uh talked in

299
00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:02,560
front of City Council and the
um Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory

300
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:05,920
Commission and other bodies in recent
years about

301
00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:10,200
how um a lot of the really good stuff in
those neighborhood plans informed our

302
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:16,880
first bike plan, our first pedestrian
plan, um our infrastructure plans. And

303
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:20,840
um we've really really used um a lot of
the guidance in those documents over

304
00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:24,600
many, many years to do a lot of great
stuff in the community.

305
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:28,240
But they are now um
really out of date. A lot of the things

306
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:31,240
are out of sync with our current plans.
And we just don't have the the

307
00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:35,400
horsepower to nurse along that many
different vision documents for the city.

308
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:39,840
So, we're relying on the community-wide
comprehensive plan and our development

309
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:43,780
code together to work together to
realize the vision now.

310
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:43,780
» [snorts]

311
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:53,960
» One of those things um that was pulled
out of those 25 neighborhood plans in

312
00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:58,680
the early 2000s, in 2005, were the
actual development regulations for each

313
00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:03,240
subarea in those neighborhood plans. And
those were moved into the Bellingham

314
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:07,480
Municipal Code under Title 20.
If you've ever popped open one of those

315
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:12,440
25 tables in the in the BMC, you're
familiar with the format. You've got sub

316
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:17,400
areas listed and it's kind of a grid of
columns that talks about the general

317
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:20,880
zoning type, use qualifiers and the
density that's allowed if it's a a

318
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:24,800
residential zone.
And then there is these three columns

319
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:27,400
that follow that that are
special

320
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:32,000
regulations and prerequisite
considerations.

321
00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:38,080
And those really encapsulate a lot of
those legacy infrastructure components

322
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:43,040
or other special requirements that a lot
of them, for instance, like around

323
00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:46,920
environmental protection, that we back
in the '80s when these plans were

324
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:49,960
drafted, we didn't have separate code
pieces to address. And so it was

325
00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:53,920
appropriate to do that in a neighborhood
plan. And over the ensuing years, we did

326
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:57,960
things like adopt a critical areas
ordinance that applies environmental

327
00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:01,480
protection regulations consistently
across the city for every development

328
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:05,320
project. Um,
we did things like adopt those bicycle

329
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:09,440
and pedestrian plans and a park and
recreation open space plan that have

330
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:13,920
current thinking on all of those
infrastructure pieces across the city.

331
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:17,200
Again, a lot of their
the first drafts of those plans pulled a

332
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:22,400
lot of information out of the
neighborhood plans. Um, but maintaining

333
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:25,720
those two systems in parallel to each
other is not an efficient way of working

334
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:30,760
and so
our goal is to simplify the zoning

335
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:35,200
tables in the municipal code to
eliminate those last three columns.

336
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:39,560
We have an internal process that we have
a staff team working on to evaluate

337
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:44,960
every one of these entries and every one
of those cells in those 25 tables and to

338
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:48,560
point to the current place that those
concerns are addressed. And some of them

339
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:51,560
have already been built. Some of them
are actually addressed in, like you

340
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:54,800
said, in the critical areas ordinance or
other pieces of our of our municipal

341
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:59,520
code.
And to search for anything that's a a

342
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:03,360
nugget that has value that isn't
addressed anywhere and to make [snorts]

343
00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:06,640
a list of those things. We don't know
how many of those we might find going

344
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:10,720
through all of these, but when we do,
that will be a project unto itself unto

345
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:15,000
itself to decide, "Okay, these are
things that maybe haven't been addressed

346
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:21,000
anywhere else and what's our strategy
for addressing those and have a a

347
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:25,120
process spun up for that." Um but once
that work is complete, then we will be

348
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:29,520
able to simplify these tables.
And not just drop some columns off of

349
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:33,680
here, but also
as you'll see in the the coming slides,

350
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:37,400
the goal is to also simplify the number
of zoning subareas that we have so that

351
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:42,240
instead of a couple hundred residential
subareas, we just really have four or so

352
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:47,120
types of residential zoning and that
they are consistent across the city. Um

353
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:51,440
again, for simplification and
predictability, transparency,

354
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:55,640
both for the broader community, for a
builder, for us as administrators to to

355
00:25:54,320 --> 00:26:00,320
be fair and equitable in how we
administer the code.

356
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,320
All of those reasons.

357
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,680
This is taken right from the land use
chapter of the new plan. We've got our

358
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:12,160
land use map and then we have a policy
for each of

359
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:15,720
land use types which correspond to the
colors on the land use map.

360
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:20,400
And the types that we'll be talking
about tonight, we'll just touch briefly

361
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:24,960
on the residential watershed. That's a a
future project defining what that zone

362
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:29,200
entails, but for the most part we're
looking right now at the residential

363
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:33,440
low, medium, and high
land use categories and again those

364
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:38,600
correlate or will be the replacements
for the existing residential single and

365
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:43,520
residential multi zones that you'd see
on our existing zoning map in the BMC.

366
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:48,160
Um so again it's a
recasting of those

367
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:53,920
regulations into these categories. And
again with that goal [snorts] of not

368
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:58,280
having that binary separated single and
multi-housing types, but a a broader

369
00:26:55,760 --> 00:27:03,480
zone that relies more on levels of
intensity and allows a wider range of

370
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:03,480
housing types.

371
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:11,760
Just wanted to focus on a couple of
different things. Um first the watershed

372
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:16,240
uh zone permits a limited range of
small-scale housing. Again, uh looking

373
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:20,240
for low-intensity impacts within the
watershed to protect water quality. Very

374
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:25,240
intentional. Uh we haven't had a
specific watershed zone previously, and

375
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:29,440
we felt again the the logic being that
um knowing that we're trying to focus

376
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:32,760
uh more housing and development in all
other areas of the city that the

377
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:36,600
watershed zone would be something we
would very specifically spell out that

378
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:40,120
its intent is to minimize impacts on the
lake.

379
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:43,800
And then looking at the low, medium, and
high in sequence that we'd have uh a

380
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:47,680
small
permit a range of small-scale housing

381
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:53,160
types and densities in the low,
mid-scale housing types and densities in

382
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:56,120
the medium, and the same range of uses
in the high that are allowed in the

383
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:59,240
medium,
um

384
00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:01,960
but that we would allow a higher density
in those areas.

385
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:06,120
And then just flipping these ones, you
can see again the density. Again, low

386
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:09,560
density [snorts] for the watershed,
um

387
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:14,480
minimum density standards in the low
zone so that we don't underutilize uh

388
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:17,880
what constitutes a very large part of
our community.

389
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:22,560
And then um in the medium and the high,
progressively larger minimum densities.

390
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:31,680
Last thing I'll touch on just briefly on
this slide is that we also have our

391
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:36,600
transit-oriented development. Um we did
not in the Bellingham plan update

392
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:40,840
process designate these specific uh
areas where that as an overlay would

393
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:44,800
apply, but we did talk generally that
that would relate to our high-frequency

394
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:49,040
transit routes. Um what we haven't done
is the work to decide how wide should

395
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:52,560
those corridors be, should there be
different types of TOD corridors, and

396
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:55,960
what some of the standards that could be
employed in those areas are. That's

397
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:58,720
something we'll touch on later during
our discussion.

398
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,800
Again, that's these are just some
referencing some pages in the

399
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:09,200
transportation and land use chapters
that relate. Um, I think you probably

400
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:13,680
remember in the land use chapter we have
the concept of those transit-oriented

401
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:18,200
development or TOD corridors, looking at
some of the major destination nodes

402
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:23,240
within the community, um, the urban
villages, our institutional campuses for

403
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:27,960
the colleges and also the hospital, the
airport, and and some of the major park

404
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:33,320
and recreation sites as well.
Um, and then again, the uh, modal

405
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:37,120
hierarchy pyramid pyramid, rather, the
inverted pyramid that we have in the

406
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:40,560
transportation chapter, and committing
to, um,

407
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:45,280
that as an overall growth strategy and
how that relates to the land use the

408
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,280
land use map.

409
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,920
All right, I'm going to pivot just a bit
to some of the engagement that we did,

410
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:59,440
those surveys that I was talking about.
We had three major surveys, uh, done in

411
00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:03,040
late 2023 and into 2024. Uh, the
community vision survey, we had the

412
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:06,240
housing preference survey, and then a
growth survey. And I'll just step

413
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:10,440
through those in sequence and just
highlight a couple of things relevant

414
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:13,880
for tonight's discussion.
The vision survey was, uh, a broad

415
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:18,840
survey. It was mailed out to every
household in the city. It was also, uh,

416
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:23,800
uh, shopped around at all of the tabling
opportunities and other public, uh, open

417
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:29,520
houses and, uh, community events that,
uh, over a couple of months in 2023.

418
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:33,240
Um, trying to get responses, uh, from as
many people, including visitors to the

419
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,880
community, uh, that we could.
And we also collected demographic

420
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:39,280
information with that to really
understand who we were hearing from and

421
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:43,000
how that compared to Bellingham as a
whole for the community.

422
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:46,480
Um, we had a Spanish version and had
some uh Spanish-speaking community

423
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:51,520
members respond.
Um, and it was also distributed in a

424
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:56,480
paper and online form at a variety of
events. We had over 4,000 uh responses

425
00:30:55,080 --> 00:31:00,960
to that, which when you think about it,
that's 10% ish of the community. That's

426
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:05,800
a really good response rate. We were
super excited about that. Um, and uh

427
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:09,400
felt like it was really valuable
information.

428
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:13,840
Uh this is just one of the summary
slides. Basically, it was about uh

429
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:18,800
concerns and kind of rating uh like a
report card for the community in that

430
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:21,560
2023 time frame. And really addressing
what what are the main concerns or you

431
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,560
know, what do you think Bellingham needs
to improve on and what are the things

432
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:28,200
that we do really well.
Um, the top concerns are the things that

433
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:32,240
were more on the the red side of the
ledger that were things that we need to

434
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:37,720
do better on. Um, housing for all
incomes was clearly articulated as as

435
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:42,280
the the biggest uh concern and home
ownership was right behind that. Um,

436
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:46,920
also living wage job stability. So,
those three things together um, just

437
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:50,680
really indicate that a large large
segment of the of our community is

438
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:55,240
really struggling um to find housing, to
keep uh having an income that keeps pace

439
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:58,920
with the cost of housing. Um, and so
those are again, none of us was

440
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:02,320
surprised and and certainly wouldn't be
a surprise to anybody that keeps track

441
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:05,960
of what's going on in Bellingham or
really uh

442
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:09,760
across the country and the state. But um
it was good to get some some hard data

443
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:13,040
that correlated that so that we could
focus our policy work.

444
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:22,040
The housing preference survey was um
a little bit uh it was a smaller survey.

445
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:26,240
It was very focused on housing types and
conversations around housing. It was a

446
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:30,800
statistically valid survey as opposed to
the vision survey, which was just a mail

447
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:36,280
out and mail back and we
um didn't really do any any uh serious

448
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:41,320
control over who we we back from.
Uh this was intentionally mailed to um a

449
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:44,920
random selection of addresses throughout
the community.

450
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:48,360
We we did some balancing at the front
end. So, for uh

451
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:52,560
uh
typically underrepresented respondents

452
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:58,680
that we find in the community. So, folks
with lower incomes,

453
00:32:54,520 --> 00:33:02,480
BIPOC community members, um
uh young people in particular, people

454
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:06,720
that are 24 and under are typically ones
that are underrepresented in surveys.

455
00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:11,080
And so, census tracts that we know had
higher concentrations of those folks, we

456
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:15,440
oversaturated with the mail out. Again,
to try and balance out, make sure what

457
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,760
we got back was a closer sample to what
our community demographics are.

458
00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,480
And that was where we had a consultant
help with that. That was a little bit

459
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:25,560
more than we were willing to do on our
own.

460
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:29,680
Some of the main takeaways were that
residents prefer the small-scale and

461
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:33,120
urban residential neighborhood types.
And I'll touch on what those are exactly

462
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:37,280
on the next slide.
Um that people definitely preferred

463
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:39,520
owning over renting. Again, no surprise
there.

464
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:42,840
Lots of challenges around that,
obviously. But that that's given a

465
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:46,400
choice, most people would rather own a
home than rent a home.

466
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:49,880
Um and then when considering a wide
variety of trade-offs, so trying to kind

467
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:54,000
of bring a little bit more of reality
into it and just saying instead of just

468
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:59,320
saying what's your ideal,
people had a indicated a preference for

469
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:03,640
homes on smaller lots and closer
together. So, greater density in

470
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:08,159
exchange for getting better access to
things like multimodal infrastructure,

471
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:13,240
amenities like parks, and proximity to
services like groceries and pharmacies

472
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:18,760
and daycares and those kinds of things.
Also, when we talked about home sizes

473
00:34:15,919 --> 00:34:22,000
and configurations, the two-bedroom unit
was something that everybody felt we

474
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:26,040
didn't have enough of in town, and they
felt like that was a good compromise

475
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:30,360
between
on the size range between affordability

476
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,600
and what they would like, livability.
So,

477
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:37,120
that was something that was very
interesting to us was that two bedrooms

478
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:41,240
are very popular. They go very quickly
in the community when they become

479
00:34:38,240 --> 00:34:48,000
available for rent or for sale. Um, and
that um, that's just something to pay

480
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:48,000
attention to as we uh, develop our code.

481
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:56,159
Again, those it just seeing here that
the the two types of neighborhoods

482
00:34:53,679 --> 00:35:00,480
people were most interested in living
in, not saying that they live in those

483
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:04,160
neighborhood types today, were the
small-scale residential and the urban

484
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:08,880
residential type neighborhoods. I've
just plopped these kind of circles on

485
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:12,040
top of the the Opticos
uh, missing middle housing diagram that

486
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:16,800
I think a lot of you have seen many
times before to just put a little bit of

487
00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:21,480
a visual to it, but the small-scale
residential is that kind of up to

488
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:25,760
three-story sort of moderate density
with the wide mix of housing types, and

489
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:31,240
then the urban residential is
uh, more the the smaller block size or

490
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:35,880
quarter block size type buildings that
are maybe up to five stories. Um, which

491
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:39,840
we see a lot of in our urban villages
um, and in in a few other parts of town,

492
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:43,440
but those were the the kinds of
neighborhoods again with a mix of things

493
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:47,520
happening within those neighborhoods
that people indicated a preference for.

494
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:54,880
These are kind of complicated
statistical summary things from the the

495
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:58,840
uh, report, but I just want to call your
attention to um,

496
00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:02,400
on the left here, these are the
percentages of the neighborhood types

497
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:06,040
that people are actually living in
today. So, you can see we had kind of a

498
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:08,480
spectrum of uh,
uh,

499
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:11,480
maybe 12% living in kind of the more
dense urban core areas,

500
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:15,840
um,
and then kind of a even split between

501
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:19,680
our very suburban kind of uh,
low-density neighborhoods, and then the

502
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:23,640
medium-density neighborhoods. And then
going across, these are the types of

503
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:27,400
neighborhoods that people said they
would prefer to live in.

504
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:32,400
Um, and so it's no surprise people that
live in fairly suburban areas tagged the

505
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:36,200
suburban type of neighborhood as an area
they'd like to stay in. But what what we

506
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:41,240
felt was
kind of a revelation or an important key

507
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:45,240
point to key into were that the people
that maybe live in the more dense areas

508
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,920
now
um

509
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:51,960
were not necessarily all keyed into
living in a low-density suburban area.

510
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:56,640
That their preference aimed more for
those kind of moderate-density,

511
00:36:53,920 --> 00:37:00,480
mixed-use, more variety of housing types
neighborhoods, which is that small-scale

512
00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:04,720
and urban residential. So again, that
kind of

513
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:09,200
intuitive recognition that while I might
maybe I would want to live in a large

514
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:12,680
home on a large lot at the edge of town,
I understand that there are some some

515
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:15,880
costs that come with that in the
transportation realm, also environmental

516
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,200
impacts,
um

517
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:21,680
and and [snorts] the like, and that
maybe they were willing to compromise

518
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:26,360
and live in a denser environment with a
more variety of housing styles in

519
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:30,560
exchange for those amenities and
services that come with the denser

520
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,560
neighborhood.

521
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:38,440
And again, just on this side over here,
this was indicating again the strong

522
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:45,920
preference for owning your home as
opposed to renting, and then also

523
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:51,040
just again willing to compromise on or
to accept living closer to others in

524
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:55,640
exchange for having things like access
to transit, access to other community

525
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:55,640
amenities.

526
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:02,720
So that was the housing preference
survey, and then the last survey we did

527
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:06,640
was conducted largely online, and that
was the growth survey, and this we ran

528
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:12,320
off of our Engage Bellingham page, and
also did some postcard mail outs with a

529
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:15,800
QR code on it. Um, and again, this was
done in in English and Spanish, and we

530
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:20,920
had a lot of outreach through our
project email lists that were fairly

531
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:25,040
well developed by this time. Um, several
thousand went out that way, Um, and also

532
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:28,440
it was promoted on social media and at
community events. We had over 3,000

533
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:32,960
responses, which we felt was again a
really good response um, for the for the

534
00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:35,440
effort.
And

535
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:39,000
uh, a lot of the responses echoed what
we'd seen in the vision and the housing

536
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:43,640
preference survey, but we did ask some
of the questions in different ways. And

537
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:47,680
um, again, there was that smaller
housing closer to amenities was a value

538
00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:53,240
that people had. We again saw a
preference for two-bedroom formats um,

539
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:56,840
as opposed to larger homes farther away
from the core of the community.

540
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:59,960
One of the interesting things we asked
about was um,

541
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:04,080
we asked a variety of urban village
questions about where people liked to go

542
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:07,640
in the community, what they liked about
urban villages, or maybe what they were

543
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:10,960
concerned about about urban villages.
Um, you could see one of those comments

544
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:14,720
was that our urban villages are too
auto-centric for some folks. Uh, they'd

545
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:19,280
like to see more pedestrian
infrastructure in those areas. Um, one

546
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:22,640
of the key things we asked was where
where should we have more urban villages

547
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:26,320
in Bellingham? And we had a kind of a
heat map that people were able to drop

548
00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:29,880
points on. Um, there were some
interesting locations around town next

549
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:34,280
to people's favorite park and those kind
of things, which maybe maybe or maybe

550
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:37,360
not as practical. But Cordata and the
north part of Bellingham came out as a

551
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:41,200
clear preference where people were like,
"Hey, we really need to have uh, that

552
00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:45,280
there." And that's the sentiment we've
heard in public hearings and through

553
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:49,400
other kinds of um, not necessarily
surveys, but other other That's another

554
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:52,720
uh, point that we hear frequently at the
city is that they'd like to have a

555
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:56,200
mixed-use urban village in the north
part of the city. And so that's

556
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:59,360
something that we're putting putting a
pin in that conversation. We're doing

557
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:03,800
this residential zoning code update
first. When we do again pivot to looking

558
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:08,160
at more urban villages, we'll pay close
attention to that and really look at

559
00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:13,720
that area out in Cordata as as maybe one
of the next potential areas to do that

560
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,720
kind of a kind of a district.

561
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:21,800
Okay, looking at the future land use and
zoning maps.

562
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:25,760
Um
this is just

563
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:28,440
basically looking at our existing
uh zoning map and turning off the

564
00:40:28,112 --> 00:40:32,920
» [snorts]
>> uh the the non-residential categories,

565
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:36,880
so you don't see the green parks, the
the blue institutional

566
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:41,720
uh campus zones, or the the gray
industrial or red commercial zones, but

567
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:45,400
what you see is the existing residential
single zones that are the yellow areas,

568
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:49,520
and the existing residential multi,
which are the orange, and then our urban

569
00:40:47,240 --> 00:40:53,280
villages are the pink areas.
Um again, we've you know

570
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:56,920
we're in this kind of transition time.
We have interim middle housing

571
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:59,640
regulations that apply across all of
these zones,

572
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:03,000
um with the exception of the areas in
the Lake Whatcom watershed.

573
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:07,320
Um so, while these are zoned residential
single in our zoning code, there's an

574
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:10,480
interim ordinance that overrides that
and allows people to develop middle

575
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:15,000
housing in these areas. But, this is
just the lay of the land from a

576
00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:15,000
geographic standpoint.

577
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:17,440
Oops.

578
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:23,720
So, there's the zoning, and here's our
future land use map, again with just the

579
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:26,920
residential colors turned on from our
the Bellingham plan.

580
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:30,720
And you can see instead of that
residential

581
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:33,640
single multi paradigm that you have on
the existing zoning

582
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:38,560
the new land use map has that
residential low, and then a residential

583
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:41,760
medium, and the residential high zone.
You can see the lighter color out here

584
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:45,680
for the residential watershed, and then
the urban villages are uh the same

585
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:49,680
districts as they are on the on the
zoning map and on the future land use

586
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:49,680
map.

587
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:56,600
Just focusing on each of those
individually, uh the residential low

588
00:41:54,040 --> 00:42:01,080
zone, first and foremost, it's it's all
of the residential single zones from the

589
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:06,440
current zoning map. And then a few other
things, um namely, you see these

590
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:11,200
highlighted uh kind of turquoise or blue
areas that we brought in. There's a big

591
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:14,560
one out here in uh Barkley,
uh one along um

592
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:18,200
uh
the edge of the Birchwood neighborhood

593
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:23,320
that fronts the the
bluff there by the waterfront, and then

594
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:28,120
a couple of small ones in the uh Whatcom
Falls, and I think it's the Samish

595
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:32,400
neighborhood. These are the few existing
residential medium zones that have a

596
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:37,040
low-density designation in the zoning
code. Um we did the kind of pondering

597
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:39,960
this as we were pulling together the
draft land use map. I think it's

598
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:43,320
something it's something that we brought
forward to you uh when we were going

599
00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:49,560
through the different residential
policies in the land use chapter.

600
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:53,200
And uh council agreed as well that those
were most appropriate to land in the

601
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:56,640
residential low zone because they
already had that low-density identifier

602
00:42:55,680 --> 00:43:00,840
on them.
And that with the middle housing

603
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:04,960
ordinance coming forward, that it was
likely that that that would be the best

604
00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:10,280
fit. So, it's all the residential single
zones, and then those low-density

605
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:10,280
residential multi zones.

606
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:17,920
Looking at the medium zone, these are um
all

607
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:23,320
uh what would formally be residential
multi zones with the medium density

608
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:27,840
designation in today's zoning code. So,
just saying instead of residential multi

609
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:32,080
medium density, we're just calling them
residential medium.

610
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:35,600
And then the allowed uses as per our
current interim and eventually our

611
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:40,920
permanent residential regulations, they
would allow not just the multi uses, but

612
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:45,200
also the range of middle housing. Um and
they have an appropriate minimum density

613
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:48,880
um as they do today to make sure that
things get developed in an efficient

614
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:48,880
way.

615
00:43:50,920 --> 00:44:00,640
And then the residential high is again
for the most part, today's residential

616
00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:05,760
multi high-density zones. And then we
have a series of mixed-use zones which

617
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:10,600
allow um out at north end of Cordata
here, in the middle of Cordata, right

618
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:16,480
next to the Cordata Park. Uh Those are
areas that are designated commercial,

619
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:20,160
industrial, residential multi.
If you were to go out to those areas

620
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:25,320
today, the developed properties are for
the most part all residential.

621
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:28,720
There are a few non-residential uses,
but not many that have been developed in

622
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:33,480
those areas.
So, we felt the best fit looking at

623
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:37,720
existing development, the few vacant
properties that are left in these areas

624
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:44,120
was to to drop them into the residential
high category because that was

625
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:48,400
the most the closest fit for those.
And then,

626
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:52,840
you can see next to the hospital, there
is a commercial, or rather an

627
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:56,080
institutional residential multi zone.
And so, we felt again that the best fit

628
00:44:54,480 --> 00:45:02,400
for that would be the residential high
zone. So, those are ones that they show

629
00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:05,520
up as mixed on the current map, but we
would anticipate that those if we were

630
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,600
to pick between the low, medium, and
high, it would be most appropriate if

631
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:11,480
the most appropriate if they would land
in the high zone.

632
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:19,160
And then, looking at the residential
watershed, again on the zoning map,

633
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:22,560
there are residential single and
residential multi zones in the

634
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:28,880
watershed.
If you recall in 2023, the residential

635
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:33,400
multi zones were all down zoned to the
low density category.

636
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:37,440
And so, we felt again it was most
appropriate to just capture all of them

637
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:42,440
in that residential watershed zone.
That's a conversation for a future time

638
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:46,800
as to what exactly is allowed in that
zone. But again, the the clear guidance

639
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:51,760
from the the Bellingham plan from a
policy standpoint is that it be low

640
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:55,520
density and have minimal impacts on
water quality in the lake.

641
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:59,040
And again, there's a a variety of ways
we could approach that, and that'll be

642
00:45:57,480 --> 00:46:03,480
something that we'll bring forward to
you for for detailed conversation when

643
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:07,640
we get our different experts in the city
together and come up with some

644
00:46:04,720 --> 00:46:07,640
recommendations.

645
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:15,480
One of the just details that is left to
figure out about that is just the

646
00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:19,160
boundary for the watershed. We have a
couple of different um

647
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:23,360
different um
things to ponder. We have the red Silver

648
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:27,280
Beach neighborhood boundary here.
And then we have the uh this is the the

649
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:31,520
black and white map in the background
here is taken right from the municipal

650
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:35,920
code related to the Silver Beach overlay
zone and which controls when certain

651
00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:40,360
things can happen for development in the
watershed to minimize impacts on the

652
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:44,720
lake. And there's the gray area which is
all within the Lake Whatcom watershed

653
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:50,320
and then the cross-hatched area is
within the watershed but drains to um

654
00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:54,440
the area uh that goes to Whatcom Creek
as opposed to the lake. So, it all the

655
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:58,240
drainage all comes down to the west of
the Electric Avenue bridge there.

656
00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:02,040
Um so, there's some choices to make
there. Again, we haven't haven't made

657
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:07,000
those choices yet, but that'll be part
of that conversation when we decide what

658
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:11,240
will be allowed in those zones and how
how that will be crafted in development

659
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:11,240
code.

660
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:20,040
One more loose end that we'll need to
figure out um

661
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:24,280
and again this is something our our team
is talking about internally, but we

662
00:47:21,720 --> 00:47:28,680
don't have a a strong recommendation yet
um but we'll bring back uh when when we

663
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:33,680
do have some some options for you guys
to to discuss and talk about. Um

664
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:37,520
within each of the urban villages there
are these transition zones which are

665
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:41,680
highlighted there in the darker pink.
They generally

666
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:47,080
uh but up against adjacent residential
low or medium or high density areas. And

667
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:51,200
so, we what we want to avoid at least
for a great length of time is setting up

668
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:56,480
a situation where you might have higher
density just outside of an urban village

669
00:47:53,800 --> 00:48:00,880
and then a lower density or lower level
of intensity allowed within a transition

670
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:04,040
area and then back up to a higher level
of intensity in the core of an urban

671
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:07,280
village. So, those are things that we'll
have to we'll have to navigate that and

672
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:10,440
figure out how we're going to designate
those areas.

673
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:16,400
If they'll become part of the adjacent
residential medium or high zones or

674
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:19,320
maybe they will be redesignated as high.
Um there's a variety of things there,

675
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:23,520
but we need to do some more thinking on
that. We'll come back to you with some

676
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:27,400
recommendations. That will likely happen
alongside [snorts]

677
00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:27,400
these code updates.

678
00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:36,080
This is just illustrating the wide
variety of existing zoning densities

679
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:39,680
that are applied in the current
residential single zones. So, all of the

680
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:43,800
stuff that's
uh shown in color on the map here is is

681
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:46,920
inside that residential proposed
residential low zone.

682
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:51,400
Um
and you can see there's some definite

683
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:54,200
patterns of the core areas are are older
gridded neighborhoods having higher

684
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:59,360
densities.
Um lot sizes allowed lot sizes that are

685
00:48:57,240 --> 00:49:03,200
as small as 3,000 square feet in the
York neighborhood and then um as you go

686
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:08,040
towards the edges
um or the example of Birchwood, you have

687
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:12,720
densities that go up to those in some
cases almost a half acre lot size, the

688
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:16,440
20,000 square foot areas.
And then we have quite a few that are in

689
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:20,960
those around the 7,000 square foot lot
size in different parts of town. Um

690
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:24,560
but it is interesting to see what the
pattern is and how that relates.

691
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:31,440
And then also
these are the densities that are listed

692
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:36,200
in those zoning tables and then as as
the

693
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:39,600
note says here, some of these zones um
in particular some of the ones that

694
00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:44,000
we've annexed over the last 20 or so
years from Whatcom County have

695
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:47,760
opportunities for uh bonuses for
clustering

696
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:51,880
um or other kinds of uh provisions to
increase density. Um some of them

697
00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:57,000
through like a TDR transfer of
development rights kind of program um or

698
00:49:54,720 --> 00:50:00,600
other kinds of kinds of options.
Um so there's some level of complexity

699
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:04,040
there, but this is the base
the base density that's that's

700
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:08,680
referenced.
Wait, can I just cut in for a second? It

701
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:12,720
is what was um this is being proposed
going forward, not was in the previous

702
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:15,600
one. This would carry forward with us or
something we're trying to simplify.

703
00:50:14,720 --> 00:50:20,200
Uh
so these would be again in that the kind

704
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:23,120
of 97 unique zoning subareas. This is
one of those things we're looking to

705
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:26,880
really simplify.
Um and I'll we're going to jump into

706
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:30,280
some of uh existing platting patterns
next. Just making sure. The residential

707
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:34,560
low confused me I think versus
residential single whether it was the

708
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:39,680
previous or the proposed. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Yeah, so great observation that

709
00:50:37,240 --> 00:50:43,720
it's I mean it's uh I'll clarify that
that yeah, so these are existing

710
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:47,880
densities in the Bellingham municipal
code for those residential single zones.

711
00:50:46,720 --> 00:50:51,480
Um
and again just just in the past couple

712
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:54,120
of years that we've had just since we've
had the interim middle housing

713
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:56,440
ordinance.
Um

714
00:50:55,040 --> 00:51:02,240
previously this was your minimum lot
size and it corresponded to one home per

715
00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:06,800
lot. And now now that we allow four or
in some cases up to six per lot, that's

716
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:10,520
really changed the landscape. Um
and then accessory dwelling units as

717
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:16,800
well as another another variable in
there. Uh so those are where

718
00:51:13,240 --> 00:51:21,200
again we're we're um stepping back,
examining the landscape, looking at

719
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:23,800
these areas in context of also the
medium and high

720
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:27,080
uh
proposed zoning areas and trying to

721
00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:33,240
figure out what makes the most sense as
a recommendation for a more uniform

722
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:33,240
density across the city.

723
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:41,360
So these are I'm just going to step
through a few of these and not not dwell

724
00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:45,760
on them for a long time, but just to
give give you an idea. Um these are all

725
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:50,080
of the tax parcels or lots throughout
that same set of zones. Um

726
00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:54,160
you know, you can't see a lot of the
detail here, but you can you can see

727
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:57,040
some of the large unplatted areas around
the edges.

728
00:51:55,280 --> 00:52:01,360
Um, and then as you get into these
gridded neighborhoods, you know, a lot

729
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:09,720
of these are are those like 4 or 5,000
or maybe 7,000 square foot lots. Um,

730
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:15,160
overall, the entire entire set of zones
contain just under 16,000 tax parcel

731
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:18,280
parcels covers about um,
5,800 acres.

732
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:23,240
Uh,
that's that's a good section of

733
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:28,880
Bellingham. It's about 70% of our
residential zoning as far as acreage

734
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:34,960
goes. Um, it's about uh, roughly a third
of the city's land area.

735
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:38,560
Um, of those 15,900
uh,

736
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:42,960
nearly all of them about 90% are platted
lots.

737
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:48,000
Um, and that makes up uh, about 75% of
that total area. The 300 unplatted lots

738
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:50,560
are about 25%. And again, you can see
that

739
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:54,080
those are the unplatted ones are not
insignificant. It's it's some of them

740
00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:58,680
are quite large. Um,
but [snorts] they are for the most part

741
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:58,680
those those areas around the edge.

742
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:09,560
Doing a little bit of uh,
digging uh,

743
00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:14,040
comparing some of our GIS data about a
majority, just a little bit over half of

744
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:17,040
those platted lots are less than 7,500
square feet. Those have all been

745
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:21,560
highlighted here so you can kind of see
where they are. Predictably, a lot of

746
00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:28,000
our core neighborhoods with those those
uh, defined gridded blocks and regular

747
00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:30,880
lot lot rectangular lot sizes um, are
are where you'd see a lot of those and

748
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:36,000
you're probably familiar with, you know,
the the lettered streets and uh,

749
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:40,200
Columbia neighborhood, South Hill, um,
Happy Valley, a lot of those areas where

750
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:44,040
you'd experience those kind of blocks.
And then just from a statistical

751
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:48,000
statistical standpoint, the 5,000 square
foot lot is is the most common platted

752
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:51,120
lot size.
There's a lot of, you know, again,

753
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:55,560
between the the five and the kind of
7,000 square foot size, there there's a

754
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:58,000
lot of a lot of them in there. Yes,
yeah.

755
00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:03,440
I'm squinting [clears throat] at that
chart. It it Is there much below 5,000?

756
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:10,040
I I I I saw you we have like some 3,000
and 4,000 zoned areas, but it kind of

757
00:54:06,840 --> 00:54:14,360
looks like there's nothing at all lower
than the 5,000 hash. This is it's

758
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:19,040
basically 5,000 and
uh the the

759
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:23,960
smaller ones, it's the label is
somewhere in

760
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:26,560
the range there. The um I'll
Next time we come back to you, I can

761
00:54:25,240 --> 00:54:31,000
pull up or I can send you guys the
actual table with the occurrences on it.

762
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:37,680
Um but that gives you the
from a frequency standpoint, um

763
00:54:33,720 --> 00:54:40,800
those that's the most common size.
This is looking at the

764
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:45,200
uh
And then again, these highlighted ones

765
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:48,720
are are everything 7,500 below, which
would include all those ones that are

766
00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:51,520
like in York that are 3,000 or 4,000
square feet.

767
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:04,680
Looking at all the the lots again in
that same collection, um

768
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:11,000
again, of just under 16,000 total, about
13,500 or about 85% have a single

769
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:14,960
housing unit on them. Um and of all
those ones with just a single housing

770
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:19,160
unit, the majority of those, clear
majority,

771
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:22,520
um have less than 50% lot coverage. Um
and so that's using our our buildings

772
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:25,440
layer that has, you know, if you have a
lot with a building and a garage, it's

773
00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:29,200
got two
two polygons on it. Single Just single

774
00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:31,880
home by itself, it's a single one. But
we When we add up the square footage of

775
00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:35,920
those and compare it to the square
footage of the entire lot, um and so

776
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:39,040
that's, you know, that's not accounting
for driveways and other hardscape

777
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:43,840
features, but it gives you some idea
that there's definitely a fair amount of

778
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:47,440
development capacity for adding middle
housing

779
00:55:45,360 --> 00:55:51,360
on areas without really impacting
existing the existing housing units on

780
00:55:49,800 --> 00:55:55,920
those lots or there's there's definitely
some opportunities there.

781
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:59,920
That's the kind of analysis that
was incorporated into the land capacity

782
00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:03,400
estimate that informed the comprehensive
plan to make sure that we have enough

783
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:07,600
land to accommodate the projected
growth. Um, this is just but it just

784
00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:10,360
from a very general standpoint, it's a
useful thing to know.

785
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:15,280
Um,
about 850 of those lots accommodate

786
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:19,720
multiple housing units. So, a lot of
those would be like a single home with

787
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:23,640
an accessory dwelling unit. Um, could be
a duplex or other kind of housing form

788
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:30,040
that's that's uh
been built previously in those zones.

789
00:56:26,560 --> 00:56:33,320
And then just under 1% about 120
accommodate non-residential uses and so

790
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:37,440
those are things like schools or
churches or maybe a corner market or

791
00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:43,520
some other some other
commercial or non-residential use

792
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:47,440
that's in one of our one of those zones.
And then around the edge, uh, there's

793
00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:50,920
about 1,500 or so that are vacant. So,
about 10% overall.

794
00:56:54,760 --> 00:57:00,920
I'm just going to step through a series
of images that that give you the pattern

795
00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:04,440
in these 5,000 square foot increments.
So, what you're seeing here and I'll go

796
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:09,280
through it a couple times just so you
kind of see, but these are all the lots

797
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:16,560
that are less than 5,000 and then you
can see between 5 and 10.

798
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:22,160
And then 10 to 15.
15 to 20

799
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:27,640
and then 20 to 25.
And then anything greater than 25,000.

800
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:31,720
Um, and these are the uh
these are the lots that are platted. So,

801
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:35,000
you're you're seeing the vacant uh
unplatted stuff show up like on

802
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:38,600
Sammamish Hill or some of the other edge
areas. These are just the platted lots.

803
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:41,760
Um
So, I'll just go back through that in

804
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:45,680
sequence. What I want to Basically, what
you're going to see is that the pattern

805
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:51,800
is that you get those
those ones that are between

806
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:55,640
5 and less than 5 and up to maybe 7,500
are for the most part in a lot of these

807
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:59,600
core areas.
And then we start to get a more

808
00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:03,320
distributed pattern for those larger
lots.

809
00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:08,080
Um but you do also see, for instance,
that Birchwood is an area that shows up

810
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:13,840
with a larger number of the those big
like 20,000 square foot, 15,000 square

811
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:13,840
foot, or even larger lots.

812
00:58:18,360 --> 00:58:23,440
And then the last kind of lot pattern
thing I wanted to bring to your

813
00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:26,960
attention just because
when you're doing those infill housing

814
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:31,400
infill toolkit style projects where
you're adding uh adding units to a lot

815
00:58:29,680 --> 00:58:36,360
that may already have an existing home
on it, um a couple of things make that a

816
00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:40,360
lot easier. One is if it's a corner lot
because then you have a couple of

817
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:43,840
different access points to the lot. Um
and oftentimes those are just by nature

818
00:58:41,920 --> 00:58:47,920
sometimes larger lots.
Uh but having a having two points of

819
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:52,320
access is an important one. And then in
that same vein, access lots that are

820
00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:56,000
along an improved alleyway.
Um again, because you can get in

821
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:59,320
oftentimes without Maybe the home is
situated in such a way that you can't

822
00:58:57,480 --> 00:59:04,040
get a driveway by the side of the home,
but if you get to the alley, you can add

823
00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:08,360
a town home or an ADU or something like
that in the back. Um

824
00:59:06,360 --> 00:59:13,040
And so again, it's you know, for the
particularly for the platted alleys um

825
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:16,880
that are improved, again, it's in some
very focused areas of town.

826
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:20,680
Um corner lots, we have those obviously
in a wide variety of places, but again,

827
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:24,160
you could see because of the gridded
streets, those those interior

828
00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:28,680
neighborhoods, you do see a lot of
opportunities there as well.

829
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:34,480
So again, just something to be thinking
of. Um That's one thing that

830
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:39,640
our staff has pondered quite a bit in
the past 6 months or so are where we do

831
00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:44,480
have things like platted and improved
alleys, where do we have platted alleys

832
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:48,440
that aren't improved, and what kinds of
opportunities those present. And then

833
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:52,040
where do we not have alleys platted, but
we might have deep lots that could

834
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:56,200
really benefit from having alleys at
some point. Or

835
00:59:54,600 --> 01:00:00,280
to just broaden that a little bit, maybe
not necessarily an alley, but an

836
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:06,120
improved lane or other small some kind
of small street form that could be used

837
01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:10,160
to to provide access for fire, to
provide just access for again residents

838
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:14,560
in their daily lives.
Also things like access for SSC for

839
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:18,280
garbage collection,
just the whole variety of things where

840
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:22,200
it's it's challenging sometimes when you
only have one way of getting in to a

841
01:00:20,120 --> 01:00:25,320
property. So those are all
all things we're trying to ponder and

842
01:00:23,760 --> 01:00:28,600
work with our friends in public works
and try and figure out what's what are

843
01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:32,080
some strategies
for the variety of neighborhood forms

844
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:36,960
that we have that could really where we
could leverage some of these things. Um

845
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:40,520
all of which we have to balance costs
with those things and impacts to to

846
01:00:39,200 --> 01:00:44,480
neighbors.
But but again, it's something that we're

847
01:00:41,680 --> 01:00:44,480
talking about.

848
01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:50,960
So before I just open it up for
discussion, I just wanted to touch on a

849
01:00:49,360 --> 01:00:54,400
couple of things and the discussion can
be on of course anything we've talked

850
01:00:52,360 --> 01:00:57,280
about or any other related questions you
have, but just a couple of things it

851
01:00:55,720 --> 01:01:01,400
would be great to get some initial
thoughts on.

852
01:00:58,600 --> 01:01:05,240
The idea of for those for those proposed
low, medium, and high zones that we

853
01:01:03,120 --> 01:01:11,400
would bring code forward for
just having a framework

854
01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:16,160
for how we differentiate those zones.
And one of the ideas that we're

855
01:01:13,320 --> 01:01:20,920
pondering is for the low zone having
both a minimum and a maximum lot size.

856
01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:25,000
So that the minimum or rather the
maximum lot size is effectively setting

857
01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:29,960
kind of what your minimum density is, so
that we are able to um

858
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:33,480
uh make the best use of the limited land
that we have in town, and understand

859
01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:38,000
that we don't have too many more
opportunities to expand our boundary

860
01:01:35,640 --> 01:01:41,800
before we run into watershed or
agricultural land, or we have saltwater

861
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:46,120
and hills. So, we we just don't have
that much more many more places to grow

862
01:01:43,760 --> 01:01:49,920
over the next series of decades. We want
to make the best use of the land we

863
01:01:47,400 --> 01:01:54,960
have, and so setting a a minimum density
is a a common way for communities to

864
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:59,040
really curate that limited land.
And then also, um

865
01:01:57,040 --> 01:02:05,120
having a uh
uh for the medium and high zones,

866
01:02:02,560 --> 01:02:09,520
um having at least uh we have for those
areas today a minimum density, and so

867
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:13,040
maintaining that, um and not worrying as
much about the lot sizes in those areas,

868
01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:16,360
understanding that they're really going
to be accommodating more of those

869
01:02:14,720 --> 01:02:21,480
multi-multi-story
forms, um but really just focusing on

870
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:25,720
what's the established minimum for those
areas from a performance standpoint.

871
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:29,880
Again, to make sure that we're getting
the um

872
01:02:27,560 --> 01:02:34,000
the amount of development that we are
are anticipating, um so that the

873
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:38,360
infrastructure we provide is used to the
greatest degree possible, whether that

874
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:40,640
be transit or parks or other kinds of
urban amenities.

875
01:02:39,680 --> 01:02:44,440
So,
so that's one kind of framework

876
01:02:42,480 --> 01:02:49,240
conversation and point that we'd like to
get feedback on.

877
01:02:47,240 --> 01:02:54,640
Another is just looking at our existing
interim rules, um where we allow um

878
01:02:53,040 --> 01:03:00,120
up to, for instance, if we're looking at
like the townhome form, we allow up to

879
01:02:56,320 --> 01:03:05,320
four units to be attached in a row, um
under the interim uh infill rules.

880
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:08,520
Is that appropriate to hang on to that?
Is that a number we want to make bigger?

881
01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:12,040
Um
should we allow five or sixplexes?

882
01:03:10,960 --> 01:03:15,600
Um
and uh you know, that they would

883
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:20,280
obviously that that would fit within the
agreed-upon low zone standards for like

884
01:03:18,160 --> 01:03:22,600
height and open space standards.
Um

885
01:03:21,280 --> 01:03:27,840
and is it really about the number of
units? Um or is it more about the bulk

886
01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:30,400
and mass of the overall building itself?
Um

887
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:34,640
aiming you know, leaning towards more of
a form-based approach um as opposed to

888
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:38,440
just controlling the number of units.
So, those are again kind of open-ended

889
01:03:36,640 --> 01:03:42,560
questions, but things that we're
thinking about. And if if you all have

890
01:03:40,320 --> 01:03:50,280
thoughts or questions related to that
that that's that's um helpful for us as

891
01:03:46,000 --> 01:03:50,280
we go through these these conversations.

892
01:03:50,760 --> 01:03:56,280
And then the last one I touched briefly
on those uh TOD transit-oriented

893
01:03:54,640 --> 01:03:59,880
development corridors.
We have not delineated those yet. We we

894
01:03:58,360 --> 01:04:03,520
know that they're likely going to be
along uh Whatcom Transportation

895
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:08,600
Authority's GO lines where they have
their uh fifth currently 15-minute

896
01:04:05,920 --> 01:04:12,320
service intervals for transit. Um
they're in the midst, if you've been

897
01:04:09,760 --> 01:04:14,920
watching recent council meetings, of
uh

898
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:18,560
um
working with the city uh to move forward

899
01:04:17,440 --> 01:04:23,000
with uh
um shortening up those service intervals

900
01:04:20,880 --> 01:04:26,280
along those GO lines. Uh there's now an
agreement between the city and Whatcom

901
01:04:24,600 --> 01:04:32,360
Transportation to work collaboratively
towards that goal. Uh picking off some

902
01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:36,760
easy or relatively achievable uh things
along those routes to take about 5

903
01:04:34,280 --> 01:04:39,760
minutes off of those headway times. Um
and that's one of those necessary

904
01:04:38,440 --> 01:04:43,920
ingredients to really make
transit-oriented development successful.

905
01:04:41,760 --> 01:04:47,600
And it's kind of a feedback loop that
that it makes the transit successful,

906
01:04:45,640 --> 01:04:51,680
too, cuz you have ridership.
Um so

907
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:54,480
to think about what those corridors
might look like, whether they're

908
01:04:52,840 --> 01:05:00,880
occurring in a low, medium, or high
zone. Um what kinds of additional

909
01:04:58,880 --> 01:05:04,720
um what kinds of flexibility should we
include in those areas?

910
01:05:02,800 --> 01:05:09,800
Um whether it be height or reduced
setbacks or other kinds of things. So,

911
01:05:07,520 --> 01:05:13,280
those are
those are some of the things we'd like

912
01:05:11,080 --> 01:05:17,280
to have feedback on and again, like I
said, I'm we're happy to respond to

913
01:05:15,960 --> 01:05:21,480
any questions you have around those
things. Also, any of the other material

914
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:26,720
and like I said, my friend Chris is here
who's well versed in the the the BMC and

915
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:30,840
also is heavily involved in the team
working on the residential zoning stuff.

916
01:05:28,480 --> 01:05:30,840
So.

917
01:05:32,600 --> 01:05:37,600
Great.
Feedback? Questions?

918
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:44,000
I have a question
for either Chris.

919
01:05:43,080 --> 01:05:47,760
Um
I'm curious uh

920
01:05:46,240 --> 01:05:51,520
with uh
with the low

921
01:05:49,480 --> 01:05:54,760
um
the low zoning

922
01:05:53,160 --> 01:06:01,000
um and and maybe I'll just phrase it in
a question. Um if I if I owned a 5,000

923
01:05:58,640 --> 01:06:05,920
square foot lot and I was thinking about
building a fourplex

924
01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:11,320
uh and I went to the building department
to obtain a permit. Um

925
01:06:09,120 --> 01:06:15,880
if that fourplex
took up 4,000 square feet of impervious

926
01:06:14,560 --> 01:06:20,480
surface
am I eligible

927
01:06:17,840 --> 01:06:26,400
for a permit? Uh did the new middle
housing

928
01:06:22,200 --> 01:06:30,520
um requirements supersede what our local
stormwater regs are?

929
01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:37,200
Uh right now, there is an open space
requirement. So, if you don't meet the

930
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:43,240
open space requirement for your
development, regardless of the number of

931
01:06:38,920 --> 01:06:50,040
units, then it would not be allowed.
So, is that open space uh requirement

932
01:06:46,960 --> 01:06:55,840
changing or is it the same formula that
we've been using?

933
01:06:51,960 --> 01:06:59,280
Uh it's a formula that was adopted for
the middle housing

934
01:06:57,920 --> 01:07:02,160
ordinance.
Um

935
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:07,440
and
uh again, we are evaluating that right

936
01:07:04,960 --> 01:07:11,680
now. So, we don't know if it will change
or if we've actually got it dialed in

937
01:07:10,160 --> 01:07:14,320
where we want it to be at this point.
We're

938
01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:17,760
looking at the projects that are coming
in right now under the current interim

939
01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:22,360
ordinance
and the the previous interim ordinance

940
01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:26,360
and um
just

941
01:07:23,800 --> 01:07:31,400
we'll we'll evaluate that and come up
with a proposal

942
01:07:28,560 --> 01:07:31,400
or recommendation.

943
01:07:31,960 --> 01:07:34,440
Um

944
01:07:35,000 --> 01:07:40,560
on the graph
that when the poll was taken and an

945
01:07:39,000 --> 01:07:43,840
overwhelming amount of people said,
"Hey, it'd be great to own a home and

946
01:07:42,120 --> 01:07:48,600
not rent a home
in Bellingham." And that's, you know, we

947
01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:53,760
hear that all the time. And making
housing affordable, which seems to be

948
01:07:51,760 --> 01:07:58,440
the biggest challenge with not much
developable land. Um when we move to

949
01:07:56,840 --> 01:08:02,240
this
would it be fair to say if somebody in

950
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:07,760
the Birchwood neighborhood
um that had a 15,000 square foot lot

951
01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:11,600
would there be a minimum lot size where
instead of just developing an ADU,

952
01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:16,560
something that they could rent, would
that person be able to subdivide their

953
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:21,279
property into three 5,000 square foot
lots and sell those two lots for

954
01:08:19,400 --> 01:08:25,920
development so somebody might be able to
afford

955
01:08:22,560 --> 01:08:30,720
a smaller home on a subdivided lot?
Yes, you would be able to subdivide. You

956
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:35,279
are able to subdivide right now under
the current uh interim ordinance. So the

957
01:08:33,839 --> 01:08:38,759
current one, depending on what
neighborhood you're in, uh the graph

958
01:08:37,400 --> 01:08:42,560
that Chris showed. So if you were in a
neighborhood that said, "Hey, your

959
01:08:39,839 --> 01:08:46,720
minimum lot size in this neighborhood is
8,000 square feet." Are we going to have

960
01:08:44,640 --> 01:08:50,680
a new minimum lot size for middle
housing?

961
01:08:48,440 --> 01:08:57,120
Uh
we're looking to come up with a

962
01:08:53,799 --> 01:09:03,359
minimum lot size that would
apply citywide. Universal. Universal.

963
01:09:01,839 --> 01:09:08,560
Um
say right now under say a single-family

964
01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:12,920
5,000 zone,
you can put four to six units on that.

965
01:09:11,319 --> 01:09:18,279
You can subdivide those four to six
units into four lots.

966
01:09:15,600 --> 01:09:24,640
So, for example, a townhouse lot where
the townhouse is only 16 ft wide,

967
01:09:21,640 --> 01:09:30,160
you're creating a very small lot. The
end units tend to take up

968
01:09:27,359 --> 01:09:34,920
the open space on the outside. So, those
lots tend to be a little bit larger.

969
01:09:32,359 --> 01:09:40,480
So, a 5,000 sq ft lot could be
subdivided into four to six units. A

970
01:09:37,400 --> 01:09:45,240
20,000 sq ft lot could be subdivided
into four to six units.

971
01:09:43,200 --> 01:09:51,200
Potentially, if you know, if we do come
up with this universal

972
01:09:47,400 --> 01:09:54,600
mm minimum lot size parent lot size,
uh in the Birchwood neighborhood, if

973
01:09:53,279 --> 01:10:00,080
that
that lot size is 5,000 sq ft and you

974
01:09:57,600 --> 01:10:04,960
have a 20,000 sq ft lot,
then you could create four parent lots.

975
01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:09,760
Each of those parent lots would be
eligible for four to six units.

976
01:10:07,880 --> 01:10:13,120
Each of those units could be subdivided
onto individual lots.

977
01:10:11,800 --> 01:10:18,960
So,
basically, it it gets to a point where

978
01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:22,560
you're not able to
keep subdividing

979
01:10:20,840 --> 01:10:25,240
into smaller lots. Or there's a there's
a point where you just can't subdivide

980
01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:30,040
it further.
Sure. And when you see people applying

981
01:10:27,720 --> 01:10:34,640
for that sort of development, is the
biggest hurdle then

982
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:39,880
uh pervious surface?
Stormwater?

983
01:10:36,120 --> 01:10:46,400
That that is one of the bigger um
roadblocks. The others are, you know,

984
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:50,840
existing trees on site for preservation.
Um

985
01:10:48,400 --> 01:10:53,560
sometimes it's existing homes on site
that

986
01:10:51,760 --> 01:10:56,560
they want to preserve. So, there there
there's

987
01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:58,960
all kinds of variables.
Um

988
01:10:57,680 --> 01:11:01,560
but stormwater's definitely one of the
bigger ones.

989
01:11:02,040 --> 01:11:09,000
Yeah, thank you.
I guess that following on to that

990
01:11:05,880 --> 01:11:14,680
is there a reason there should be any
minimum lot size

991
01:11:11,560 --> 01:11:17,680
given the confusion it causes when we're
I guess looking at community goals of

992
01:11:16,120 --> 01:11:22,480
increasing
um access to ownership and increasing

993
01:11:20,120 --> 01:11:28,680
affordability minimum lot size obviously
tends to correlate with increasing

994
01:11:25,560 --> 01:11:32,520
property expenses and price.
Um

995
01:11:30,760 --> 01:11:38,200
so yeah, wondering if
we if it's possible to just not have a

996
01:11:35,400 --> 01:11:42,520
minimum lot size recognizing
that we're not talking about the

997
01:11:39,240 --> 01:11:47,640
watershed and that any that it would be
form base. You'd still have to uh comply

998
01:11:45,360 --> 01:11:51,320
with the impervious surfaces and the
setback and the heights and everything

999
01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:55,960
else. Um
and assuming connected to sewer and you

1000
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:59,920
didn't need enough space for a septic
and all of that stuff.

1001
01:11:57,960 --> 01:12:04,760
Have you thought about just not having a
minimum lot at all?

1002
01:12:02,600 --> 01:12:07,400
That's a possibility.
That's an option.

1003
01:12:10,440 --> 01:12:16,600
Do you know any reasons your staff has
talked about why that's a bad idea or

1004
01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:19,640
why that shouldn't move forward just out
of curiosity?

1005
01:12:21,600 --> 01:12:28,680
It's one of those where it's it's an
unknown. It's it's something we have

1006
01:12:25,800 --> 01:12:32,240
never had before. So it's
you know, right now we're operating

1007
01:12:30,280 --> 01:12:37,520
under this uh interim ordinance and
we're able to see

1008
01:12:34,880 --> 01:12:42,880
how it plays out
on this, you know, short-term basis and

1009
01:12:39,920 --> 01:12:46,520
then explore options based on what those
outcomes are and that's that's kind of

1010
01:12:44,920 --> 01:12:53,520
the beauty of it.
Um if we just jump to something that we

1011
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:59,440
It's don't know um
we don't know what the outcomes are.

1012
01:12:56,040 --> 01:12:59,440
That that's a little more challenging.

1013
01:12:59,680 --> 01:13:05,040
But I think I think to your point
though, the um

1014
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:08,360
the idea
uh

1015
01:13:07,040 --> 01:13:13,440
we we've talked about, you know, the
range of potential values to consider

1016
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:15,920
for both a minimum or a maximum. And in
our conversations

1017
01:13:15,240 --> 01:13:21,040
um
it's been uh and again set up by the

1018
01:13:18,600 --> 01:13:25,960
policies in the the land use chapter,
the the maximum lot size is really the

1019
01:13:23,320 --> 01:13:29,880
the one that we feel is is um
that's the one that really helps you

1020
01:13:27,440 --> 01:13:33,600
achieve that minimum density threshold
to make sure that again that we're we're

1021
01:13:31,400 --> 01:13:36,400
making the best use of the areas we have
left to develop in town.

1022
01:13:35,480 --> 01:13:40,760
Um
But but that's a that is an interesting

1023
01:13:38,520 --> 01:13:43,640
idea to just say maybe maybe if you only
need a maximum, can you accomplish what

1024
01:13:42,560 --> 01:13:45,840
you need?
So.

1025
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:54,440
Chris, you mentioned TDR transfer of
development rights. I'm not familiar

1026
01:13:52,120 --> 01:13:58,080
with that. Can you explain it to me?
Yeah, it's a it's a program that the

1027
01:13:56,440 --> 01:14:03,680
it's been a county-wide program for a
good number of years, um over 20. And

1028
01:14:01,560 --> 01:14:08,000
it's not anything that's really caught
on locally. We've studied it uh the

1029
01:14:06,000 --> 01:14:12,880
county and the cities have studied it
jointly a number of times over the past

1030
01:14:09,920 --> 01:14:16,480
20 years. And it's really been uh we
haven't had the market to support it.

1031
01:14:14,400 --> 01:14:21,320
But it's basically in concept, you have
areas in rural areas uh

1032
01:14:19,080 --> 01:14:24,560
that you want to limit development in
and it could be the watershed, it could

1033
01:14:22,640 --> 01:14:26,920
be the agricultural zone. Those are kind
of the two most common that are talked

1034
01:14:25,880 --> 01:14:32,840
about.
And to effectively move development

1035
01:14:30,440 --> 01:14:36,760
rights out of that zone
or either of those kinds of areas, you

1036
01:14:34,560 --> 01:14:42,480
set up receiving zones in areas like a
city where you're willing to increase

1037
01:14:39,800 --> 01:14:46,040
density in exchange for a property owner
or developer buying development rights

1038
01:14:44,800 --> 01:14:50,080
out of those areas that you want to
preserve. And in that exchange, there's

1039
01:14:48,480 --> 01:14:55,440
some negotiation that happens. There's
an agreed-upon price per unit. And then

1040
01:14:52,960 --> 01:14:59,720
the the deed for the property out in the
area you want to remove units from,

1041
01:14:57,240 --> 01:15:02,800
there's the deed gets modified to say
the property rights have been purchased.

1042
01:15:01,480 --> 01:15:05,920
They've been used in, you know,
Bellingham or wherever, or they've gone

1043
01:15:04,120 --> 01:15:08,960
into a bank for further use somewhere
generically.

1044
01:15:07,200 --> 01:15:12,480
Um
It's it's something that really has

1045
01:15:10,400 --> 01:15:16,840
never taken off. There are a few
examples in Whatcom County where it's

1046
01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:21,960
happened, but in general, the market has
not been there um

1047
01:15:18,800 --> 01:15:26,760
to really force the issue on those. A
simpler program is what we've had

1048
01:15:24,480 --> 01:15:30,840
um running beside that and is in our
zoning as well. It's a purchase of

1049
01:15:28,280 --> 01:15:33,880
development rights program, and we've
had that in a in some areas we've

1050
01:15:32,480 --> 01:15:39,160
annexed from Whatcom County where you
can do TDRs or PDRs.

1051
01:15:36,880 --> 01:15:42,520
We've had one example in the last 15 or
so years where some uh

1052
01:15:40,960 --> 01:15:46,720
a project was built. I think it was out
on Telegraph,

1053
01:15:44,320 --> 01:15:49,800
where someone was able to purchase some
development rights and able to add

1054
01:15:48,200 --> 01:15:52,960
additional units on a multi-family
project um just by, you know, basically

1055
01:15:52,000 --> 01:15:55,960
much simpler. You don't have to
negotiate back and forth with

1056
01:15:54,680 --> 01:15:59,480
development rights. You can just write a
check. It goes into the watershed

1057
01:15:57,320 --> 01:16:05,280
purchase fund, and you're granted it
additional floors or additional units in

1058
01:16:01,720 --> 01:16:05,280
a project. Um

1059
01:16:05,600 --> 01:16:10,120
Yeah, and it goes into like, you know,
it's designated for a special fund, and

1060
01:16:08,680 --> 01:16:15,720
in exchange, you're given additional
density. Um the only place that

1061
01:16:13,680 --> 01:16:20,280
one of the only places in the state that
programs like that have worked very well

1062
01:16:18,080 --> 01:16:24,160
were were in the kind of boom years of
when the South Lake Union projects

1063
01:16:21,920 --> 01:16:27,560
around Amazon were developing, and you
had

1064
01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:31,520
towers over 20 stories going up, and in
exchange for buying agricultural

1065
01:16:30,240 --> 01:16:35,640
development rights or watershed
development rights in King County,

1066
01:16:33,240 --> 01:16:39,440
developers were able to add 10 or 15
floors to a building. In that kind of

1067
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:43,000
environment, it definitely made sense.
It penciled out for them.

1068
01:16:41,280 --> 01:16:46,920
The environment in Whatcom County, it's
the market's never been there to really

1069
01:16:45,040 --> 01:16:51,840
make the development rights valuable
enough to force that.

1070
01:16:48,760 --> 01:16:55,640
Um the other thing, again, just given
the last 3 years worth of state

1071
01:16:53,520 --> 01:16:59,240
legislation, we've just been given a
huge

1072
01:16:57,280 --> 01:17:03,200
density boost in
in Bellingham in particular because

1073
01:17:00,760 --> 01:17:07,280
House Bill 1110 applies here. And so
that just makes it even less likely

1074
01:17:05,480 --> 01:17:11,240
that a developer isn't going to be able
to build as many units as they want and

1075
01:17:08,960 --> 01:17:15,800
they're going to pay extra to get that.
So it's just again one of those things

1076
01:17:14,080 --> 01:17:21,440
um that just from a market standpoint
has never really made sense here. Um

1077
01:17:18,720 --> 01:17:26,080
great great policy and laudable cause,
but it's just not a mechanism that's

1078
01:17:23,160 --> 01:17:26,080
been able to work.

1079
01:17:30,560 --> 01:17:37,200
Um
looking through the map, it I think

1080
01:17:34,840 --> 01:17:43,080
we're I'm curious at how rigid we need
to be about mapping current RS to low

1081
01:17:39,720 --> 01:17:45,680
and current RM to medium.
And what

1082
01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:52,560
what the philosophical difference
between low and medium is given

1083
01:17:49,640 --> 01:17:56,560
1110 applies in both.
Um

1084
01:17:53,880 --> 01:17:58,120
we've got your
your

1085
01:17:57,560 --> 01:18:02,120
uh
lot size analysis is only in the low.

1086
01:18:01,600 --> 01:18:05,400
And if you
>> Yeah, I I what we showed you tonight is

1087
01:18:04,040 --> 01:18:08,760
in the low zone. We've got we've got
that for the whole city, but it's yeah,

1088
01:18:07,040 --> 01:18:12,680
you're right. It's we've we focused on
for instance

1089
01:18:10,120 --> 01:18:16,640
again, because we were less concerned
about lot sizes in the medium and high

1090
01:18:14,760 --> 01:18:21,760
zones. It's more about setting a minimum
density threshold Yeah. knowing that lot

1091
01:18:20,040 --> 01:18:25,360
sizes work differently with with
residential multi projects in

1092
01:18:23,240 --> 01:18:28,680
particular. Um
But I

1093
01:18:26,480 --> 01:18:33,880
I mean I I I just observe that there's
there's some areas that are lower lot

1094
01:18:31,160 --> 01:18:37,560
size like 3,000 lot size that are going
to get tagged as low and some areas that

1095
01:18:35,760 --> 01:18:41,480
are 5,000 lot size that going to get
tagged as medium

1096
01:18:39,240 --> 01:18:46,040
and they're like across the street the
same distance from a transit center.

1097
01:18:43,800 --> 01:18:52,040
Like it's it's arbitrary. It's the
historical layers of, you know, decades

1098
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:56,720
of built-up decision-making.
The built environment

1099
01:18:54,200 --> 01:19:00,080
may be more appropriate in some cases
for a medium

1100
01:18:58,520 --> 01:19:03,560
if for something that might get tagged
as low. And so

1101
01:19:01,720 --> 01:19:06,360
kind of going back to what
um

1102
01:19:04,600 --> 01:19:12,360
he was asking
is there other dimensions around open

1103
01:19:08,800 --> 01:19:15,920
space requirements or setbacks or other
fact- limiting factors like that between

1104
01:19:14,320 --> 01:19:18,840
low and medium
that maybe makes sense

1105
01:19:17,840 --> 01:19:24,520
to cuz
inside the

1106
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:27,640
existing built neighborhoods
you've got a whole street of 3,000 ft

1107
01:19:26,320 --> 01:19:30,800
lots and a whole and a whole street of
5,000 ft lots. That's not going to

1108
01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:34,080
change very much. Oh it's going to be
very very slow for any sort of bundling

1109
01:19:32,920 --> 01:19:37,560
to happen.
Um

1110
01:19:36,080 --> 01:19:41,400
if any
redevelopment is going to happen, does

1111
01:19:38,960 --> 01:19:46,000
it come down to things like open
space requirements? And do we have any

1112
01:19:44,440 --> 01:19:49,840
are those are we anticipating those
being different at the medium and high?

1113
01:19:50,120 --> 01:19:55,680
Well, you you have the the building
envelope that you can build within based

1114
01:19:53,800 --> 01:19:59,920
on the standards. So for the middle
housing

1115
01:19:56,920 --> 01:20:03,120
um you have your floor area ratio. And
it's um

1116
01:20:01,320 --> 01:20:07,880
it's scaled so that it if you're just
going to build one unit on site you get

1117
01:20:05,440 --> 01:20:14,160
a 0.6 FAR.
Um based on the the lot size. If you

1118
01:20:10,680 --> 01:20:19,440
build six units on it, you get 1.6. So
it's for every unit you add, you get a

1119
01:20:17,360 --> 01:20:25,760
0.2 bonus.
So that is one of the

1120
01:20:22,640 --> 01:20:29,720
things that are limiting your envelope.
You have your setbacks. You have open

1121
01:20:27,360 --> 01:20:33,880
space. You have height limits.
Um

1122
01:20:31,240 --> 01:20:39,600
those are those are really the the main
factors there.

1123
01:20:35,640 --> 01:20:39,600
Are there credits between four and six?

1124
01:20:39,920 --> 01:20:48,400
Uh yes. It It Again,
at four, you're at 1.2, at five, you're

1125
01:20:45,520 --> 01:20:54,080
1.4, and at six, you're at 1.6. So, you
get a credit of 0.2 FAR

1126
01:20:51,320 --> 01:20:54,080
for each unit.

1127
01:20:57,440 --> 01:21:04,320
I I'd say that
with the low zones, um

1128
01:21:02,160 --> 01:21:07,960
you know, Portland has
uh

1129
01:21:05,080 --> 01:21:12,840
been doing this for a while where they
created these zones, and in the low

1130
01:21:11,000 --> 01:21:19,120
zones,
it's the FAR that is actually

1131
01:21:15,880 --> 01:21:26,240
creating the incentive for more building
more units.

1132
01:21:20,680 --> 01:21:29,880
If you only have, say, a a single FAR
uh that allows

1133
01:21:28,320 --> 01:21:33,600
um
a

1134
01:21:30,520 --> 01:21:36,640
a 1.6 on a lot, regardless of the number
of dwelling units,

1135
01:21:35,520 --> 01:21:40,760
you're going to have developers building
the largest single-family home that they

1136
01:21:38,400 --> 01:21:44,480
can. And, you know, we have developers
in the city that just focus on

1137
01:21:42,080 --> 01:21:48,200
single-family. That's all they want.
Um

1138
01:21:45,920 --> 01:21:56,360
but if you have a this progressive scale
starting at 0.6 at one unit and

1139
01:21:52,160 --> 01:22:00,760
um tapering up to the 1.6 for six units,
there is an incentive to build [snorts]

1140
01:21:58,680 --> 01:22:04,680
more units because you get more floor
area for each unit that you add to the

1141
01:22:02,720 --> 01:22:07,920
site. So, it's it's more likely that
you're going to

1142
01:22:06,360 --> 01:22:10,040
get those units.
And the

1143
01:22:09,400 --> 01:22:16,200
um
medium or high zones, where typically

1144
01:22:13,080 --> 01:22:19,720
it's a multi-family zones at this time,
looking at

1145
01:22:17,720 --> 01:22:24,400
uh limiting
development size just by

1146
01:22:22,400 --> 01:22:29,720
the building envelope, not by a floor
area ratio. So, if you have a 35-ft

1147
01:22:27,360 --> 01:22:35,000
height limit in a medium zone
or a 45-ft height limit in a high zone,

1148
01:22:32,600 --> 01:22:40,600
it's more of the
the building height limit, the setbacks,

1149
01:22:37,280 --> 01:22:45,560
open space. It's not based on the FAR.
And again, in those zones

1150
01:22:43,920 --> 01:22:50,160
those are just hypothetical throwing out
those numbers of 35 ft and 45 ft.

1151
01:22:49,040 --> 01:22:54,840
Those are recommendations that we're
looking for from the commission of what

1152
01:22:52,520 --> 01:22:58,560
is the appropriate height limits for
those

1153
01:22:55,880 --> 01:22:58,560
for those zones.

1154
01:23:04,560 --> 01:23:09,000
With the
Yeah, it

1155
01:23:11,080 --> 01:23:17,640
The thing that
I really have been drawn to this idea of

1156
01:23:14,160 --> 01:23:22,480
like the the density model
the low, medium, high isn't really the

1157
01:23:20,920 --> 01:23:26,720
it's not the biggest factor for the
density anymore. Um,

1158
01:23:24,520 --> 01:23:30,960
but
being stuck in the old

1159
01:23:28,760 --> 01:23:35,840
mental model. Like like I'm really drawn
to the idea of like proximity to

1160
01:23:34,320 --> 01:23:40,440
interesting things. Proximity to
commercial, proximity to schools, parks,

1161
01:23:38,400 --> 01:23:47,120
trails, and like
that's the TOD strategy kind of misses

1162
01:23:43,200 --> 01:23:51,320
that general proximity to amenities.
Um,

1163
01:23:48,280 --> 01:23:55,560
and I just I see
a lot of yellow where we have low lot

1164
01:23:53,760 --> 01:23:58,520
small lot sizes, and that kind of
doesn't make sense. And and you see

1165
01:23:57,320 --> 01:24:01,840
yellow
touching urban villages.

1166
01:24:00,720 --> 01:24:05,680
And and it kind of doesn't make sense.
It's It's a low, medium, high is going

1167
01:24:03,160 --> 01:24:09,000
to be like a height differentiator.
Graduated heights.

1168
01:24:08,040 --> 01:24:12,480
You know,
I I think one of the I think we're

1169
01:24:10,600 --> 01:24:16,280
trying to map the the residential
transition urban village solution that

1170
01:24:15,200 --> 01:24:20,400
we've
had over the last 20 years.

1171
01:24:18,680 --> 01:24:23,880
And maybe
maybe it's a different way of

1172
01:24:21,480 --> 01:24:27,680
approaching that is like stepping down
from urban village to high then medium

1173
01:24:26,320 --> 01:24:32,360
then low.
And and having like

1174
01:24:29,640 --> 01:24:38,400
radiuses of of
And because right, if you have like as

1175
01:24:34,600 --> 01:24:42,440
Chris pointed out, a low zone next to
an urban village, that's that's a

1176
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:45,400
conflict.
But if

1177
01:24:43,680 --> 01:24:48,600
fourplexes are everywhere, does that
conflict really matter? Well, maybe

1178
01:24:46,760 --> 01:24:52,960
maybe the height distinction is what
matters.

1179
01:24:51,040 --> 01:24:58,520
I think and that's where I think maybe
this is just the detailed like uh

1180
01:24:57,000 --> 01:25:01,560
interactive version of the land use map
from the Bellingham plan. And so this is

1181
01:25:00,120 --> 01:25:04,880
where you're, you know, we still got the
urban villages wrapped in these pink

1182
01:25:03,400 --> 01:25:08,480
lines here, but
we've exposed those transition areas

1183
01:25:07,040 --> 01:25:10,960
you're talking about. And so that might
be

1184
01:25:09,480 --> 01:25:15,680
again to that that one slide we talked
about where we need to figure out what

1185
01:25:13,400 --> 01:25:20,400
are we doing with those transition zones
as these code updates occur. Um but I

1186
01:25:18,440 --> 01:25:24,360
think that gets at, you know, looking at
Fountain, for instance, you've got that

1187
01:25:21,800 --> 01:25:27,400
kind of core commercial corridor.
And then

1188
01:25:25,560 --> 01:25:32,360
and then a fairly substantial transition
zone that that brackets that before you

1189
01:25:29,640 --> 01:25:36,000
get into the the other neighborhoods
around there. So I think that probably

1190
01:25:33,960 --> 01:25:40,200
is
that's where some of those

1191
01:25:38,200 --> 01:25:44,080
some of those considerations can play
out. Um

1192
01:25:41,480 --> 01:25:49,240
the other thing I would offer is
we have that low, medium, and high

1193
01:25:46,720 --> 01:25:51,920
uh name that we've applied to these land
use areas.

1194
01:25:50,480 --> 01:25:56,560
And particularly with the new interim
middle housing regs, it's it's helpful

1195
01:25:54,520 --> 01:26:01,400
to think of it There is definitely a
density correlation there. But it's

1196
01:25:58,920 --> 01:26:05,800
almost it's it's almost more helpful or
realistic to think about it as low,

1197
01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:09,160
medium, and high form.
Because those examples like in

1198
01:26:07,440 --> 01:26:12,800
Birchwood, the the example Chris was
talking about where maybe you can get

1199
01:26:11,080 --> 01:26:17,120
three parent three or four parent lots,
and then you have the the

1200
01:26:15,240 --> 01:26:19,680
middle housing units allowed on each of
those lots

1201
01:26:18,440 --> 01:26:22,960
Um um
that it is

1202
01:26:20,720 --> 01:26:27,680
» The capacity to subdivide, not
necessarily the unit count. Yeah. That

1203
01:26:25,840 --> 01:26:31,080
those three zones dictate.
>> Yeah, and there's definitely a

1204
01:26:28,640 --> 01:26:35,960
relationship there, but that it's fairly
disconnected from the old residential

1205
01:26:33,160 --> 01:26:40,840
single patterns that we've had in up to
this point. Yeah. And so that's that's

1206
01:26:38,560 --> 01:26:45,200
just how transformative that that middle
housing legislation really is. And so it

1207
01:26:43,040 --> 01:26:51,280
is again just in in our minds when we're
talking about the development standards

1208
01:26:47,720 --> 01:26:55,040
that kind of thinking about the form is
is instructive and and what those

1209
01:26:53,400 --> 01:27:00,360
standards are and how they vary between
the low and medium and high.

1210
01:26:57,920 --> 01:27:04,880
But that would be for us to to change.
Right now it's still proposed going

1211
01:27:01,960 --> 01:27:10,080
forward based off of the square foot of
land area per unit. So it is still unit

1212
01:27:07,040 --> 01:27:13,640
based. So I think it's one I mean
to your points of the specific heights

1213
01:27:11,720 --> 01:27:19,200
and recommendations from us. I mean I I
I think staff is probably much more

1214
01:27:16,960 --> 01:27:23,000
expert in this than us and well better
positioned to come up with some of those

1215
01:27:20,840 --> 01:27:28,840
specific numbers, but in terms of broad
principles, I would say I would suggest

1216
01:27:25,800 --> 01:27:32,880
it being form based, not unit based per
our discussions of the height

1217
01:27:30,120 --> 01:27:39,040
transitions and recognizing that middle
housing allows, you know, four units or

1218
01:27:35,960 --> 01:27:44,080
six if it's affordable in every location
where single family housing is allowed.

1219
01:27:41,720 --> 01:27:48,120
So that already disrupts all of this. So
I think shifting to that kind of

1220
01:27:46,120 --> 01:27:52,400
thinking rather than unit size, which is
kind of what I was trying to get at with

1221
01:27:49,400 --> 01:27:57,640
the the minimum lot size kind of
becoming a a confusing barrier that

1222
01:27:54,680 --> 01:28:02,120
would you know, add confusion and time
to construction costs. So so form-based

1223
01:28:00,240 --> 01:28:07,240
thinking I would suggest would be one
principle to think about as you move

1224
01:28:04,080 --> 01:28:12,160
forward. Um
No maximum density I I

1225
01:28:09,680 --> 01:28:16,560
said before um and then just yeah,
simple

1226
01:28:13,640 --> 01:28:21,600
what can be done by right clearly
communicated I guess would be three

1227
01:28:18,160 --> 01:28:29,800
principles on this that I would just
um support for kind of that that ease of

1228
01:28:26,680 --> 01:28:34,320
of development um
to expand housing options for community

1229
01:28:32,040 --> 01:28:37,640
members keeping with kind of the
community forms we have.

1230
01:28:40,400 --> 01:28:45,520
Thank you. That's helpful.
I

1231
01:28:43,280 --> 01:28:50,280
I'll tell you it's it's a tough, you
know, just the should it be a four unit

1232
01:28:47,800 --> 01:28:53,600
or a six unit um
I've had the opportunity to walk around

1233
01:28:52,160 --> 01:28:58,160
some neighborhoods in Seattle like the
Ballard neighborhoods where this is

1234
01:28:55,200 --> 01:29:03,800
zoning's already been implemented and
the neighborhoods have changed radically

1235
01:29:01,040 --> 01:29:08,440
and honestly I don't know if it's
for the better uh for the people who

1236
01:29:06,120 --> 01:29:11,640
live there for a long time. Uh there's a
house and now there's a house in the

1237
01:29:10,000 --> 01:29:14,800
backyard of a house and a lot of it's
planted with an alley so there's two

1238
01:29:13,160 --> 01:29:19,680
houses in the back of a house and then
if a developer who's able to buy two

1239
01:29:17,200 --> 01:29:23,840
houses now it's a 12-plex there and
there was the promise of light rail and

1240
01:29:21,680 --> 01:29:29,440
less cars needed but honestly you can't
park anywhere. Um it it's been a a

1241
01:29:26,960 --> 01:29:33,280
disruption and I I understand why we
need it. Um

1242
01:29:31,480 --> 01:29:38,640
I don't know if I would jump on board
with just maximizing units um with the

1243
01:29:36,600 --> 01:29:43,960
caveat of maybe maybe you keep it at
four if it's going to be an apartment

1244
01:29:41,120 --> 01:29:49,200
but if a developer wants to do a six and
a townhouse

1245
01:29:45,520 --> 01:29:54,280
uh format to a to be able to supply more
affordable housing towards people maybe

1246
01:29:51,760 --> 01:29:56,640
that's a an incentive that we could work
on.

1247
01:30:04,800 --> 01:30:15,600
I I idea if this is legal.
Um wondering about

1248
01:30:11,880 --> 01:30:21,600
yeah, the legality possibility of um I
get for instance um that our short-term

1249
01:30:18,520 --> 01:30:29,040
rental Airbnb policy
um doesn't allow for detached

1250
01:30:26,480 --> 01:30:33,960
dwelling unit short-term rentals
um tied to this could be reevaluated if

1251
01:30:32,840 --> 01:30:39,320
the
Bellingham vacancy rate rises above 4%.

1252
01:30:36,680 --> 01:30:43,280
I think it says so it's tied to a
community value.

1253
01:30:41,360 --> 01:30:45,520
We value
um

1254
01:30:43,920 --> 01:30:49,720
having housing here for people who are
living here and that's a value we've

1255
01:30:47,240 --> 01:30:53,400
decided as a community. So we'll
reevaluate this if we feel that need is

1256
01:30:51,520 --> 01:30:57,800
being met to open up more investment
opportunities and I'm wondering if

1257
01:30:55,360 --> 01:31:02,280
there's some equivalent possibility
within the

1258
01:30:59,600 --> 01:31:06,880
space that we're talking about here of
cons- I'm hearing a lot of concerns

1259
01:31:03,880 --> 01:31:11,640
about change and unknowns and and things
is there a way to mitigate that with a

1260
01:31:09,560 --> 01:31:17,120
proposal kind of like the interim of
let's do this for a few years and then

1261
01:31:14,360 --> 01:31:21,960
come back and and reevaluate or tie it
to a marker like affordable housing for

1262
01:31:19,520 --> 01:31:26,680
the community, you know, um we're going
to allow

1263
01:31:23,280 --> 01:31:30,120
expanded or remove minimum lot sizes and
this will be reevaluated at a point at

1264
01:31:29,040 --> 01:31:35,640
which
housing the average price of the house

1265
01:31:33,080 --> 01:31:39,680
sold is only
10 times

1266
01:31:37,760 --> 01:31:44,720
area median income
or only eight times or only five times.

1267
01:31:42,960 --> 01:31:48,360
I won't get down to three which would
actually be affordable, but maybe you

1268
01:31:46,720 --> 01:31:54,000
know, five or eight or something and
then that way we've tied it to community

1269
01:31:50,280 --> 01:31:57,800
values that you've captured in
so many

1270
01:31:55,240 --> 01:32:00,640
um surveys of wanting affordable
housing.

1271
01:31:59,000 --> 01:32:04,560
So here we're tying it like we have with
our short-term rental policy to be

1272
01:32:02,920 --> 01:32:08,400
reevaluated
at certain periods.

1273
01:32:06,520 --> 01:32:13,480
So, recognizing some disruption is
necessary

1274
01:32:10,640 --> 01:32:17,720
to increase housing and affordability
while also recognizing we want to this

1275
01:32:16,080 --> 01:32:21,360
is unknown, we want a chance to
reevaluate, and this is why we're doing

1276
01:32:19,400 --> 01:32:25,760
it. But, I don't even know if it's legal
to tie to housing prices and and stuff

1277
01:32:23,600 --> 01:32:28,200
like that. But, just throwing that idea
out there.

1278
01:32:34,120 --> 01:32:39,480
I was just kind of wondering, would it
make sense to just go ahead and try and

1279
01:32:38,120 --> 01:32:43,680
the areas, just like what you were
saying, that

1280
01:32:41,080 --> 01:32:47,000
already have potential for that growth,
you know, to try and make some of those

1281
01:32:45,280 --> 01:32:51,080
changes there, see what the impacts are
going to be and everything, especially

1282
01:32:48,240 --> 01:32:57,400
with all the folks that are wanting to
own a home, you know, and be close to

1283
01:32:54,680 --> 01:33:02,800
transportation and work and and all of
that to start in those

1284
01:32:59,600 --> 01:33:07,200
close to those urban village areas where
you have the potential to be able to do

1285
01:33:04,480 --> 01:33:11,280
that and see what the impact is going to
be before going into some of maybe some

1286
01:33:09,840 --> 01:33:14,880
of the more rural areas where the
watersheds and stuff are at.

1287
01:33:17,360 --> 01:33:23,480
I'm trying to make sure I understand
what you're suggesting um

1288
01:33:21,880 --> 01:33:26,640
because right now the interims are
applying citywide except for in the

1289
01:33:25,320 --> 01:33:29,120
watershed.
Um

1290
01:33:27,520 --> 01:33:34,720
And so, are you suggesting if we were to
do like a tiered implementation or

1291
01:33:31,800 --> 01:33:39,160
phased implementation of new um
new zoning?

1292
01:33:36,760 --> 01:33:39,160
Okay.

1293
01:33:39,760 --> 01:33:45,240
Yeah, it's it's it's
uh It's tricky because you have to do

1294
01:33:43,120 --> 01:33:48,720
1110 universally.
And I think some of the reason to do

1295
01:33:46,560 --> 01:33:53,760
this is to mitigate
in the right way the fourplexes thing

1296
01:33:51,520 --> 01:33:57,800
cuz we can't phase that in
in pilot projects. We have to do that

1297
01:33:55,240 --> 01:33:57,800
everywhere.

1298
01:33:58,800 --> 01:34:05,560
I think what one of just on
tangentially related or overlapping with

1299
01:34:03,800 --> 01:34:09,000
with what you're saying, Lisa, and I
think what what Mike had been talking

1300
01:34:07,160 --> 01:34:14,200
about about those transition areas
around the urban villages is really I

1301
01:34:11,160 --> 01:34:19,000
think a lot of that will also um play
into the TOD corridor conversation just

1302
01:34:17,120 --> 01:34:23,360
because as a practical matter, if we're
looking at a like a quarter-mile walk

1303
01:34:20,680 --> 01:34:29,120
distance from those GO lines,
that really encompasses the majority of

1304
01:34:25,960 --> 01:34:33,280
those transition areas that are either
bonafide transition areas inside of an

1305
01:34:31,360 --> 01:34:38,840
urban village like Fountain or the
adjacent neighborhood areas that are

1306
01:34:35,640 --> 01:34:42,800
kind of also um not named transition
areas, but they are effectively kind of

1307
01:34:40,520 --> 01:34:45,920
transitions between the surrounding
areas.

1308
01:34:43,920 --> 01:34:50,080
Um
And and so that's that's something again

1309
01:34:48,080 --> 01:34:55,760
as as the internal team is working on
kind of draft proposals for these code

1310
01:34:52,160 --> 01:34:59,000
updates, the TOD conversation is
we as we went through the Bellingham

1311
01:34:57,280 --> 01:35:03,080
plan update, we you know, we
acknowledged that that would need to be

1312
01:35:00,600 --> 01:35:07,200
kind of a phase two with its own public
process, obviously coordination with

1313
01:35:05,240 --> 01:35:10,360
Whatcom Transportation,
um

1314
01:35:08,360 --> 01:35:14,040
and that there's there's
a good amount of uh you know, that that

1315
01:35:12,320 --> 01:35:17,760
could
that could be done in sort of reaches,

1316
01:35:16,520 --> 01:35:21,400
so to speak, like, "Hey, we're going to
look between these two particular urban

1317
01:35:19,480 --> 01:35:25,520
villages and design a corridor and maybe
there'll be something specific

1318
01:35:23,600 --> 01:35:29,600
and we would potentially learn from that
and apply it to the next corridor

1319
01:35:27,720 --> 01:35:33,760
in similar fashion to the way that our
urban village plans have evolved that

1320
01:35:32,240 --> 01:35:37,520
we did one and then we learned from that
and we applied some of what we learned

1321
01:35:35,640 --> 01:35:43,400
in the next one and they kind of have
have fed up on each other as you go

1322
01:35:39,840 --> 01:35:43,400
forward. Um

1323
01:35:43,680 --> 01:35:49,360
So So those are again, I guess what I'm
trying to say is that I I think just

1324
01:35:47,440 --> 01:35:54,040
geographically because
the GO lines relate very strongly to the

1325
01:35:51,680 --> 01:35:59,800
urban villages, I think some of those
things will happen naturally in those

1326
01:35:56,880 --> 01:36:03,200
in those follow-on processes.
Chris and the the internal team are

1327
01:36:01,280 --> 01:36:06,920
trying to leave space
as they think about what that code will

1328
01:36:04,840 --> 01:36:10,880
look like, leave space for that
transit-oriented development

1329
01:36:08,120 --> 01:36:14,200
conversation as a follow-up and make
sure that we don't paint ourselves into

1330
01:36:12,240 --> 01:36:19,360
a corner where we can't, hey, you know,
have like rows in a table of standards

1331
01:36:17,360 --> 01:36:23,360
or columns in a table of standards where
we have, you know, this is what applies.

1332
01:36:21,480 --> 01:36:27,520
And if you're in a in proximity to a
transit line, then there are these

1333
01:36:26,160 --> 01:36:30,960
kind of what we were talking about,
maybe additional height is allowed or

1334
01:36:29,360 --> 01:36:35,960
maybe additional something else or
reduced setbacks, those kinds of things,

1335
01:36:33,880 --> 01:36:41,920
um to allow that additional intensity
that we hope for in in proximity to the

1336
01:36:38,800 --> 01:36:41,920
to the transit amenity.

1337
01:36:42,160 --> 01:36:45,880
I I also think that it might come down
to like

1338
01:36:44,440 --> 01:36:48,320
like we've upzoned everywhere, but that
doesn't mean we're going to see building

1339
01:36:47,200 --> 01:36:53,880
everywhere. There's challenging
situations that the math the penciling

1340
01:36:51,480 --> 01:36:57,360
doesn't happen.
I

1341
01:36:54,720 --> 01:37:00,840
If if we can use those those
TOD zones or

1342
01:36:59,280 --> 01:37:05,360
the transition zones around urban
villages, that that might be

1343
01:37:02,760 --> 01:37:09,440
a similar overlapping Venn diagram
to find the factors that increase the

1344
01:37:07,720 --> 01:37:13,600
likelihood of development. We we want to
see redevelopment near an urban village

1345
01:37:11,680 --> 01:37:17,080
because an urban village makes sense
when it's built out, not when it's a one

1346
01:37:15,760 --> 01:37:20,320
apartment building and a parking lot.
Like we want to see Fountain and

1347
01:37:18,760 --> 01:37:25,800
Sammamish like come together. There that
that there's more value there for

1348
01:37:23,000 --> 01:37:30,360
the whole urban village picture. So,
if we can tweak those likelihood to see

1349
01:37:28,560 --> 01:37:33,520
development factors, whether it's open
space or setbacks or any of these

1350
01:37:31,680 --> 01:37:37,880
different kind of
out outside of the the periphery of

1351
01:37:36,280 --> 01:37:41,080
zoning itself that make up the
likelihood,

1352
01:37:39,320 --> 01:37:45,880
um and that's that's what high means.
That's what TOD means. That's what, you

1353
01:37:43,240 --> 01:37:50,400
know, adjacent to urban village means is
it's it's a a little bit of a community

1354
01:37:48,480 --> 01:37:53,920
predictability that
the area next to an urban village is

1355
01:37:52,440 --> 01:37:56,920
more likely to see this type of
redevelopment than the middle of a

1356
01:37:55,600 --> 01:37:59,600
yellow zone.
Even though it's

1357
01:37:58,200 --> 01:38:03,840
you know, some of the high the macro
level math is allowed everywhere.

1358
01:38:02,000 --> 01:38:08,360
And we do we do have some tools that are
different than just the form standards.

1359
01:38:06,040 --> 01:38:12,640
Um, you know, two of them that are that
we use already to in incentivize

1360
01:38:10,400 --> 01:38:17,640
development like inside urban villages
are the the the multi-family tax

1361
01:38:14,520 --> 01:38:21,160
exemption is an example. Um
and we have expanded that city-wide for

1362
01:38:19,120 --> 01:38:25,160
the 12-year program. The 8-year program
right now just applies within those

1363
01:38:22,760 --> 01:38:29,240
those pink boundaries on the map. Um,
and then the other is we we discount

1364
01:38:26,720 --> 01:38:34,840
impact fees inside urban villages.
Um, and so that's another tool that that

1365
01:38:32,640 --> 01:38:38,080
the city has to say, "Hey, we
you know, maybe the development

1366
01:38:36,520 --> 01:38:40,840
regulations are very similar in
different areas, but if there is an area

1367
01:38:39,600 --> 01:38:44,640
where we'd
like to say, "Hey, we want to make it a

1368
01:38:42,480 --> 01:38:49,440
little bit easier in these areas."
that we have some of those things where

1369
01:38:46,040 --> 01:38:53,520
we could tweak those programs over time
to to say, "Hey, you know, um and those

1370
01:38:52,160 --> 01:38:56,880
are things like, you know, obviously the
city's

1371
01:38:54,640 --> 01:39:00,640
modified our MFTE
uh regulations recently and it had been

1372
01:38:58,880 --> 01:39:02,640
a long time since we'd changed it before
that, but

1373
01:39:01,800 --> 01:39:07,120
that's a
that's a tool that is as needs change in

1374
01:39:05,400 --> 01:39:10,920
a community, those are policies that can
be adjusted to to help

1375
01:39:09,400 --> 01:39:14,200
like sit and courage growth where we
where we feel like we need it.

1376
01:39:17,720 --> 01:39:25,560
Yes, uh for me in summary, uh if if
you're going to take anything

1377
01:39:22,640 --> 01:39:30,120
away uh from us our feedback, I would
just recommend since we're getting rid

1378
01:39:27,480 --> 01:39:34,880
of the 20-some different neighborhood
requirements and going to one

1379
01:39:32,200 --> 01:39:39,800
residential low, medium, high to do a
universal minimum lot size. I think that

1380
01:39:37,720 --> 01:39:45,600
would make the process
easier for people trying to develop in

1381
01:39:42,800 --> 01:39:45,600
all neighborhoods.

1382
01:40:00,640 --> 01:40:06,040
Any Anything we didn't touch on that
you'd love to hear about?

1383
01:40:04,720 --> 01:40:09,320
No, I think I mean that was I think
that's helpful to hear kind of where

1384
01:40:07,440 --> 01:40:14,880
you're at with it and what you I mean
interesting questions I think and and

1385
01:40:11,480 --> 01:40:17,880
some ideas too that are um some mirror
some of what we've been kind of talking

1386
01:40:16,440 --> 01:40:21,200
about internally, but some of it's new,
too. So, that's helpful.

1387
01:40:20,000 --> 01:40:24,960
So.
Um

1388
01:40:22,120 --> 01:40:28,440
Yeah. There there was a topic of say in
the

1389
01:40:26,160 --> 01:40:33,320
um low zones,
currently we have a maximum project size

1390
01:40:31,360 --> 01:40:37,040
of four units.
You can have six units on a lot, but any

1391
01:40:35,640 --> 01:40:43,160
individual building can't have more than
four units. Do you have uh

1392
01:40:40,320 --> 01:40:46,520
uh recommendations on, you know,
could that be six units?

1393
01:40:47,920 --> 01:40:53,840
That four it comes from the interim
ordinance.

1394
01:40:50,760 --> 01:40:56,240
Comes from the interim ordinance. Yes.
I mean again,

1395
01:40:55,520 --> 01:41:00,680
uh
for me, I don't I wouldn't be inclined

1396
01:40:58,840 --> 01:41:04,280
to to maximize and say, "Yeah, let's
just do six." knowing that it's going to

1397
01:41:02,760 --> 01:41:08,880
be an impact for people in those
neighborhoods. Um

1398
01:41:06,560 --> 01:41:14,920
but again, because there's a need for
people to buy an affordable house, if

1399
01:41:12,600 --> 01:41:19,280
you can incentivize it by saying, "It's
a town home. It's not an apartment." If

1400
01:41:17,400 --> 01:41:23,600
if you tell a developer, "You can have
six, but you you have to sell them as

1401
01:41:20,840 --> 01:41:29,000
town homes and not rent them."
And I don't know how else we're going to

1402
01:41:25,400 --> 01:41:32,480
get affordable housing for people.
It's just I mean, I know that we're

1403
01:41:30,680 --> 01:41:36,760
looking at the UGA and Accordata and
that's going to be some development. Uh

1404
01:41:35,040 --> 01:41:40,120
so, people will be able to afford
whatever's being developed out there,

1405
01:41:38,360 --> 01:41:42,840
but if we're talking about infill in the
city

1406
01:41:41,480 --> 01:41:45,440
and I think we're going to have to get
clever.

1407
01:41:46,000 --> 01:41:55,000
Does the physical split from four
like four and two, does that make it

1408
01:41:52,400 --> 01:41:59,240
harder to do the bonus two affordable?
Like are we just sort of

1409
01:41:57,760 --> 01:42:01,600
accidentally taking that off the table
cuz it's going to be harder to meet the

1410
01:42:00,520 --> 01:42:05,360
other constraints if you have to
physically separate the buildings?

1411
01:42:02,960 --> 01:42:10,920
» Yes, so so currently I think one to four
units is IRC construction.

1412
01:42:08,720 --> 01:42:16,680
Once you get into five units or more
becomes IBC. So the construction becomes

1413
01:42:14,560 --> 01:42:20,840
more expensive.
So But that's that'll eventually

1414
01:42:19,120 --> 01:42:24,960
potentially be addressed at the state
level.

1415
01:42:22,080 --> 01:42:24,960
Hopefully, yes.

1416
01:42:27,080 --> 01:42:35,080
So but uh
if if more units are allowed to be

1417
01:42:32,480 --> 01:42:40,320
attached, say up to six units
should that be limited to just

1418
01:42:37,560 --> 01:42:45,360
townhouse housing form or
or does not matter? Could you have a

1419
01:42:42,160 --> 01:42:48,200
sixplex, a fiveplex and a sixplex
in the low zone?

1420
01:42:49,920 --> 01:42:56,800
There's so many barriers to getting to
six anywhere.

1421
01:42:54,760 --> 01:43:01,640
I mean the development side of me says
yeah, you know, let's you know, go for

1422
01:42:59,000 --> 01:43:06,320
six and and open that up, but I just
just having physically seen it and

1423
01:43:04,160 --> 01:43:11,640
knowing that we're still a very
car-centric community and there's no

1424
01:43:08,400 --> 01:43:15,040
parking requirements.
It's hard to visualize that.

1425
01:43:32,120 --> 01:43:35,920
We don't have all the answers.
>> [laughter]

1426
01:43:34,680 --> 01:43:40,800
» Okay.
And what's I mean what's the temperature

1427
01:43:37,320 --> 01:43:40,800
in the planning department?

1428
01:43:41,280 --> 01:43:48,467
I think right now um
we we're we're hoping for temperature

1429
01:43:46,720 --> 01:43:54,520
from the planning commission.
>> [laughter]

1430
01:43:49,840 --> 01:43:57,400
» Are we voting? Are we voting on 4 or 6?
We were just going to bring a tablet and

1431
01:43:55,960 --> 01:44:01,560
then hope you could write the code with
us. Yeah.

1432
01:43:59,440 --> 01:44:05,160
I don't envy you.
Now, we have we have some great

1433
01:44:02,600 --> 01:44:10,920
conversations. We have like weekly
conversations around these issues and we

1434
01:44:08,400 --> 01:44:15,360
we sing swing one way and the other and
go through it's it's the

1435
01:44:13,560 --> 01:44:20,040
a mix of long-range and development
review short-range planners and and in

1436
01:44:18,320 --> 01:44:23,760
the mix is always what projects are
currently being reviewed under these

1437
01:44:22,080 --> 01:44:27,240
interims. And so it's a continual
week-by-week learning process and then

1438
01:44:25,840 --> 01:44:30,440
trying to think
uh you know, what's one thing Chris is

1439
01:44:28,640 --> 01:44:33,400
doing is looking at the route projects
that are being reviewed and then also

1440
01:44:31,600 --> 01:44:38,160
trying to anticipate
what what will the permanent code look

1441
01:44:35,760 --> 01:44:40,880
like that will make this work better.
And and so it's yeah, it's a real

1442
01:44:39,480 --> 01:44:47,360
challenge, but we're definitely learning
a lot as those projects are coming in.

1443
01:44:44,520 --> 01:44:50,800
And right now the uh 1110 the minimum is
four. Is that right? Or It's not a

1444
01:44:49,840 --> 01:44:54,320
minimum
we we allow four outright. You allow

1445
01:44:52,760 --> 01:44:58,720
four? Yeah, there's no minimum, but it's
it's it's allow four outright and then

1446
01:44:57,360 --> 01:45:02,440
an additional two if there's the
affordability or the project

1447
01:45:00,800 --> 01:45:07,800
» Are you saying if we allow six then
we're exceeding what the House Bill 1110

1448
01:45:04,920 --> 01:45:13,000
minimum is? We're doing that on our own?
The the the House Bill allows um

1449
01:45:10,840 --> 01:45:17,840
plexes up to six plex.
And it's up to the local community to

1450
01:45:14,760 --> 01:45:22,280
decide if they want say the five-plex
and six-plex. They just have to choose

1451
01:45:19,920 --> 01:45:24,880
what five of the nine housing types that
are in the

1452
01:45:23,560 --> 01:45:29,640
middle housing
bill in House Bill 1110.

1453
01:45:28,240 --> 01:45:33,400
So that we we can choose to
>> Yeah, they've left the heavy lifting to

1454
01:45:31,040 --> 01:45:33,400
you.

1455
01:45:39,280 --> 01:45:45,680
All right. Well, I appreciate the
conversation. We will be back a number

1456
01:45:43,240 --> 01:45:49,480
of times in front of you before you get
you know, before we get to like a public

1457
01:45:47,200 --> 01:45:53,360
hearing with code proposals
cuz there are a lot of moving pieces

1458
01:45:50,880 --> 01:45:58,720
here as you can see.
But we appreciate this. The next two

1459
01:45:56,280 --> 01:46:02,640
sessions on June 4th,
you'll have a public hearing on the

1460
01:46:00,760 --> 01:46:07,880
parking standards that are being brought
forward. You remember we've got the

1461
01:46:05,280 --> 01:46:12,280
interims now and we we need to
move on to the next step there.

1462
01:46:09,920 --> 01:46:16,080
And then on the 18th, we'll have two
public hearings. Um

1463
01:46:14,360 --> 01:46:19,960
one on the home occupation permit
changes

1464
01:46:17,200 --> 01:46:24,840
and then one on the landmark tree
ordinance.

1465
01:46:21,280 --> 01:46:28,160
So again, just coming we kind of briefed
you on those earlier in the year to

1466
01:46:26,560 --> 01:46:31,680
bring you up to speed and so now you'll
see what the the proposed code

1467
01:46:30,040 --> 01:46:35,000
amendments are related to that and have
a chance to hear

1468
01:46:33,000 --> 01:46:39,960
from the public your testimony on that
and then discuss them. So

1469
01:46:37,880 --> 01:46:44,240
look forward to that.
Again, thank you for the good

1470
01:46:40,760 --> 01:46:47,840
discussion. Yeah, thank you. Um
at some point in a future meeting soon,

1471
01:46:46,040 --> 01:46:51,320
we need to appoint a shoreline
committee.

1472
01:46:49,600 --> 01:46:55,920
Um we'll talk more about it. Just keep
that in the back of your mind. Um

1473
01:46:53,640 --> 01:46:55,920
when

1474
01:46:56,040 --> 01:46:59,680
Heather and I also thought we had one.
Um

1475
01:46:58,520 --> 01:47:03,080
but we've been emailing about it. So
anyways, when when our when the other

1476
01:47:01,480 --> 01:47:06,120
two when our
chairs are here, we'll

1477
01:47:04,960 --> 01:47:08,400
we'll do some business on that next
time.

1478
01:47:08,480 --> 01:47:13,080
Um
otherwise, we shall adjourn. Have a good

1479
01:47:11,520 --> 01:47:15,200
night. Thanks.
Thanks.

1480
01:47:35,754 --> 01:47:37,774
» [music]

1481
01:47:41,680 --> 01:47:43,760
» Mhm.