Neighbors - Ferndale

POSTED: Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2008

Stores, industries flourish to offset housing slowdown in Ferndale

Last year, businesses in this quiet town sold $173 million in goods and services, but that's less than 80 percent of what was sold in Lynden, even though Lynden is about the same size.

Ferndale is a bedroom community where people sleep but drive to Bellingham to shop, work and play. But the fast-growing town of 10,800 is quickly changing.

"I think from an economic standpoint, businesses are looking to Ferndale as a viable alternative to Bellingham," said City Administrator Greg Young.

The city, which last year celebrated its 100th birthday, has seen lots of growth, largely in housing. For some people, high homes prices in Bellingham have forced them to "drive until they qualify," and many stop in Ferndale, with its ample supply of buildable land and what some developers call a more growth-friendly climate.

Housing projects have sprung up on the outer reaches of town. Over the past five years, Whatcom County's population has grown by an average of 1.8 percent a year, but Ferndale's has averaged nearly 3.4 percent.

That's had repercussions. Taxes on housing don't generally pay for what's needed to serve the housing. In the past, the city, facing budget woes, decided to cut its entire parks department. Some streets lack sidewalks that school children need when walking to school.

And imagine the sound of idling cars.

Congestion is a major issue, and Mayor Gary Jensen, who soared into office over the incumbent by a wide margin, made it one of his top issues.

It's particularly congested on Main Street, which has several chokepoints where commuters line up during rush hour: the now-undersized, two-lane Main Street-Interstate 5 overpass and where Main Street narrows into downtown.

Instant fixes are impossible because of a lack of money. The city's street-improvement list totals roughly $27 million, but even if the city borrowed as much as it possibly could, it could only raise roughly $12 million.

Still, city officials hope their current project to extend Second Avenue to the Portal Way-I-5 interchange will entice drivers to use that route instead of Main Street.

To some degree, when city officials look to the future, they see dollar signs. Over the last year, residential development has slowed, consistent with markets everywhere, but commercial and industrial development has charged ahead, Young said. Those developments provide sales taxes, and they keep jobs in town.

Major companies, such as Louws Truss, Wilson's Furniture, Barron Heating & Air Conditioning, Hardware Sales, Walgreens, Walton Beverage and Hempler's have already decided to come, and more are planning to come.

Developers have proposed Pioneer Plaza, a major residential-commercial development south of Main Street near I-5. Other major retailers, restaurants and hotels are looking to build on land near the Slater Road interchange, in south Ferndale.

"It's easier to attract businesses to a city that has a freeway running through it," Young said, adding that it has five miles of freeway frontage.

Also, a lack of buildable land in Bellingham has driven business to Ferndale, he said.

The City Council earlier this year passed new rules requiring major retailers provide amenities in their projects for the community, but they can build as big as they want. Some people fear that's not enough.

"If you want to maintain the small-town atmosphere, you have to have a size cap on large retail," Ferndale-area resident Lynnea Flarry, an active opponent of Pioneer Plaza, previously told the City Council.

She's not alone in that sentiment.

"We are very concerned about the smaller retailer in Ferndale," Flarry said. "We want to see them survive, because they're part of what makes Ferndale special."