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closeThe wheels are turning on what new types of housing might help Bellingham absorb more people. Still to come: Deciding where the housing should go.
Figuring that out could result in fireworks, or maybe cooperative agreements.
“We can do that if we work together,” city planning chief Tim Stewart told about 100 residents Wednesday night at the last of four Planning Academy II workshops. “These changes have to come in collaboration with the neighborhoods.”
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HOUSING TYPES
Here’s a staff summary of Planning Academy II members’ views on new housing types:
Accessory dwelling unit (mother-in-law house) — OK on large or alley lots, and on smaller lots in multifamily zones. Owner must occupy one of the buildings.
Attached courtyard (townhouses or apartments with common courtyard) — Common area should be open space, with parking at edge of development. Best in transition areas between multifamily and single-family zones.
Carriage housing (small apartment above garage) — OK in same areas as accessory dwelling units. Owner must occupy apartment or adjacent house.
Cottages (cluster of small houses with shared open space) — Locate in transition areas. Provide pedestrian links to neighborhood.
Duplexes and triplexes — Best on corner lots, but not all four corners.
Single-family courtyard (houses share vehicle access and courtyard space) — Not popular because of asphalted middle. Locate in transition areas.
Small-lot houses — Best with alley access; keep parking in rear. Workable in most areas.
Townhouses (multistory row houses) — Parking in rear is best. Require front porches. Locate in transition areas.
Apartment/condo building — Best in urban villages or transition areas. 5 over 1 mixed-use (up to five floors of housing over floor of commercial space or parking) — Best downtown or in urban villages.
ONLINE
To review materials from Bellingham’s Planning Academy II, go to www.cob.org and click on “Services,” then “Education,” then “Planning.”
During the four sessions, neighborhood activists, business people and other participants learned about various housing styles (see box) that might help the city accommodate new residents without — and here’s the big concern — hurting neighborhoods in the process.
Judging by their written comments, some participants are hopeful, but others remain wary.
Planners are crafting provisions for Bellingham’s development rules that would define the various types of housing and set standards for each. Their work could be unveiled for public comment starting in August, with hearings later this year by the Planning Commission and the City Council.
Then comes the task of deciding where the new housing should go. Ideas about the “where” can come from many sources, and will consume more neighborhood, commission and council meetings.
Neighborhood associations can present their “where” ideas to the city, or include new housing types when their neighborhood plan is updated.
New styles of housing also can be part of plans for urban villages around town and for developments in the city’s urban-growth-area fringe.
Property owners and developers are citizens, too, and can seek rezones to build new types of housing on their land.
The city wants a third of its growth housed in urban villages, a third in fringe areas, and a third in existing neighborhoods. But new urban villages can take years or decades to fill up, and fringe projects often aren’t near settled neighborhoods with scads of residents anxious to fill public hearings, so established neighborhoods could become the early testing ground for deciding “where.”
With all of those meetings looming in the future, people interested in “infill” should be ready to fill in their calendar books.
Contact Dean Kahn at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291.
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