Bellingham planners are proposing allowing fewer homes in areas of the Silver Beach neighborhood zoned for apartments and condominiums, aiming to balance needs for additional housing and clean water in the Lake Whatcom watershed.
More limited development would also come with stricter stormwater regulations, if the Bellingham City Council approves the changes later this year.
The proposal, introduced Tuesday, March 12 at a Silver Beach Neighborhood Association meeting, calls for changing three areas along Lake Whatcom zoned for multifamily housing from the city’s “high density” designation to “medium density.” This would eliminate the potential for hundreds of new units in a part of the city where development has resulted in excessive levels of phosphorus in the city’s drinking-water source.
Citing the city’s housing shortage, planners did not opt for the “low density” designation. Medium density would allow 215 more units than the low-density classification.
Senior Planner Steve Sundin explained his department’s rationale at the neighborhood meeting.
“All this kind of came with a punch line, and that is the city council adopted a resolution last summer stating that the City of Bellingham is in a housing crisis,” Sundin said. “By recommending the medium (density), there’s the potential out there that we could realize about 200 additional units than if we did the low. And for us, that’s not insignificant.”
Proposed changes to stormwater regulations would require multifamily developments to follow the rules now governing single-family lots in the Lake Whatcom basin. Those rules require developed lots to put no more phosphorus into the lake than undeveloped forestland would.
Under the existing rules, developers seeking to add to an apartment or condominium complex only need to show that phosphorus loading into the lake wouldn’t increase, according to a planning department report to the city planning commission, which will review the proposal next week.
Phosphorus spurs algae growth, and when algae dies, bacteria deplete the oxygen in the water as they feed on the decaying matter, imperiling plant and animal life in the lake.
Forestland filters phosphorus and bacteria out of stormwater runoff. On the other hand, the driveways, roofs and lawns typical of human development prevent natural filtration and allow unhealthy amounts of phosphorus to enter the lake.
Lake Whatcom has been on the state’s list of polluted water bodies since 1998. State and local officials developed a 50-year plan to reduce phosphorus levels and restore the lake to something resembling natural conditions — even as human uses around the lake are allowed to persist.
One solution outlined in the lake’s water-quality improvement plan is to improve stormwater treatment.
City leaders anticipate enacting rule changes before a moratorium on apartment construction in the Silver Beach neighborhood expires on July 10.
First, the planning commission will review the proposed rule changes and make recommendations to the city council. As part of its deliberations, the planning commission will take input from the public at a hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at City Hall, 210 Lottie St.
The city council will hold its own public hearing on the new development and stormwater restrictions, likely in May, Sundin said.
Ralph Schwartz is CDN’s local government reporter; reach him at ralphschwartz@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 107.
