For Immediate Release: Contact: Greg Aucutt, City of Bellingham, 360-676-6979
June 15, 2005 Carolyn Casey, Port of Bellingham, 360-676-2500
Waterfront Advisory Group Explored GP Site Wednesday
[Bellingham, Wash.]Today members of the Waterfront Advisory Group were able to go inside many of the brick buildings and waterfront warehouses at the Georgia Pacific property that the Port of Bellingham acquired earlier this year.
During their site tour, which was open to the public and media, Waterfront Advisory Group members climbed metal stairways to the top of the brick industrial buildings, learned about the massive pieces of machinery still inside the buildings and gained a sense of the size of this key piece of waterfront property.
The 10-member committee was appointed by the City and the Port to ensure public awareness and participation in waterfront planning and to work with the City and Port to implement the recommendations of the Waterfront Futures Group. The group will be involved in baywide planning and development discussions, including those relating to the Georgia Pacific site.
“The Georgia Pacific site is so vast and so complex, we felt was essential that this community group get a firsthand look of it,” said Jim Darling, the Port’s Executive Director who led the tour. “Until you walk around on the property, it is hard to transform the community’s visions into reality.”
The group was joined by Mayor Mark Asmundson and 40th District Sen. Harriet Spanel who advocated for state Model Toxic Control Act funds to be dedicated to the environmental cleanup of the GP site and the Whatcom Waterway. Later this summer, the Department of Ecology will seek public comment on cleanup proposals for the Whatcom Waterway.
The Waterfront Advisory Group had an organizational meeting in May to review and discuss the City and Port planning programs and schedules, environmental cleanup projects and the Georgia Pacific site acquisition. It also will meet at noon, July 13, at a location soon to be determined.
For more information about this group or upcoming meeting, contact Greg Aucutt at the City, 360-676-6982, or Sylvia Goodwin at the Port at 360-676-2500, . Information on the Waterfront Advisory Group is on the City of Bellingham website at www.cob.org/pcd/planning/growth/waterfront-advisory-group.htm.
