Progress Continues During the Summer on Waterfront Site Planning
The Port of Bellingham and the City of Bellingham are working together to complete a draft Master Plan for The Waterfront District. This draft plan, which should be completed in 2009, is a result of years of community involvement in hundreds of meetings and events. It also will reflect the expertise of engineers, architects, transportation planners and others who have been charged with carefully analyzing the ideas and visions for the waterfront redevelopment.
This summer (2009) the Port Commission and the City Council approved spending budgeted money to complete the final elements of this draft plan, to analyze potential environmental impacts of the redevelopment and to study adaptive reuse potential of the remaining buildings.
The Commission and Council also approved a set of Planning Assumptions and a framework map that serve as the basis for developing the final planning documents.
Waterfront Planning Assumptions - Adopted
Waterfront Framework Planning Map - Adopted
Port Focuses on Job Creation on the Waterfront
Since acquiring the Georgia Pacific property in 2005, the Port envisioned partnering with the City to support the community's vision of a vibrant, mixed-use waterfront. The Port would pay the costs of environmental cleanup and recover this investment through the future sale or lease of the property. The City would pay the costs of streets, utilities and parks and recover this investment from revenue gained by increased property values on the waterfront.
To protect the taxpayers and help offset the millions of dollars in additional environmental cleanup and infrastructure costs which would be required to allow mixed-uses on the waterfront, the Port needed several commitments from the City including:
• an agreement to allow a certain level of urban infill consistent with sustainable land use planning;
• an agreement providing predictability in long-range development regulations.
The Port and City have not reached these agreements, and the Port is currently re-evaluating its approach to managing this asset so as to create new economic opportunities and new jobs.
On November 10, 2008 the Port Commission sent a letter to the Mayor and City Council explaining why the Port was re-evaluating its approach to managing its property on the waterfront. To view this letter, click here.
Port Redevelopment Proposal from June 2008
In June 2008, the Port Commission met and received an update and a formal redevelopment Proposal that could be used as a preferred alternative in the environmental analysis for this 20 to 30 year project. The Proposal includes recommendations to questions raised during public comment and agency review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement about development density, road and trail alignment, phasing of the development and establishing a sustainable development strategy. One section of the Proposal includes updated project costs, based on new engineering work.
To view the Proposal, click here.
Draft Framework Plan of 2006
In 2006, the Port and City prepared a Draft Framework Plan for this site using comments and recommendations from the public, the Waterfront Advisory Group, the Planning Commission, consultants, staff and elected officials, and the Waterfront Futures Group's Waterfront Vision and Framework Plan: Connecting Bellingham to the Bay. The Draft Framework Plan identifies key elements of the redevelopment project using financial modeling assumptions found on the Finances and Economics page. Because the 220-acre project will take decades to complete, the Draft Framework Plan illustrates development potential in 2016 and 2026.
Since releasing the Draft Framework Plan, the Port and City have been using this plan to conduct environmental and financial analysis, which will be used in the Master Planning process in 2008.
2026 Draft Framework Plan Assumptions and Map
2016 Draft Framework Plan Assumptions and Map
Preliminary Waterfront Design Concept
Current Conditions of Bellingham's Central Waterfront
Waterfront Futures Group Vision & Framework Map
