News - Local News - Growth

POSTED: Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008

Indoor water park, retail, hotel planned for Birch Bay Waterslides

BIRCH BAY - A year-round, indoor water park, 126 units of condominiums and hotel rooms, and five commercial spaces are envisioned near the Birch Bay Waterslides.

Lynden-based Homestead Northwest, which owns the current water park at Birch Bay-Lynden and Harborview roads, wants to transform the decades-old water park into a year-round attraction, and some neighbors like the idea.

"What we're going to do is build more features to the water park that are indoor, for year-round," said Lisa Guthrie, Homestead Northwest resort development manager and a board member of the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce. "It also will create a year-round draw that'll help the other merchants of Birch Bay."

Meanwhile, farther south, the company recently applied to build a new resort between Sea Links Golf Course and Birch Bay Drive, near CJ's Beach House Restaurant. That roughly 200-unit condominium development would include commercial space, a public plaza and the area's first public restrooms, but some neighbors are concerned about impacts to the Sea Links neighborhood.

WATERSLIDE RESORT

Homestead Northwest is proposing a water park building in front of the current park's locker-room building, saving but reroofing the existing building. The company would also build three-story buildings with 126 units of housing, a mix of timeshare units and hotel rooms, Guthrie said. Five commercial buildings would be built near Birch Bay-Lynden Road.

The indoor water park would have a play structure for children, arcade, beach area, indoor slides, hot spas and either a lazy river or a wave pool, Guthrie said. The company that designed Boulder Beach, at North Idaho's Silverwood Theme Park, is bidding on this part of the project, she said.

Depending on permitting, construction could start in late 2009, and the first phase could be done a year later, she said. The full project would take about a decade before completion. The plan also is still subject to change, she said.

Homestead Northwest is asking for exceptions to land-use rules ranging from increased heights to relaxed parking requirements, guaranteeing a public hearing before approval. Whatcom County's planning department will open a public comment period when it decides the application is complete.

"The community has always been hopeful that the waterslides would stay, so this is exciting," said Kelvin Barton, chairman of a Birch Bay Steering Committee subcommittee dealing with land use. The steering committee acts as an official voice for many residents in the fast-growing unincorporated area. Birch Bay now has about 5,900 residents.

BEACH RESORT

The company is planning about 200 units, a new golf pro shop, public restrooms, retail and clubhouse on property it bought at auction two years ago. The 40 acres of golf course would remain as open space.

Without formal assurance from North Whatcom Fire and Rescue that it can serve the development, it would be blocked from building, like other Birch Bay developments. But Homestead Northwest and the district have drafted an agreement in which developers would pay the fire district $3,680 per living unit to help the district pay for new facilities, said Jon Sitkin, the attorney representing the district. The amount charged to Homestead Northwest could be less if a not-yet-finalized study shows less is needed, he said.

The beach resort would be accessed by Birch Bay Drive and an existing road to the Sea Links neighborhood, just north of the project. Residential buildings would range between two and four stories. The company is asking Whatcom County to allow construction as high as 75 feet, along with other relaxed land-use rules, according to the application. But it plans to have no buildings higher than 55 feet, Guthrie said.

Some neighbors are concerned about the project's impacts.

"There are some houses that are going to be severely impacted by this," said Alice "Sunny" Brown, a Sea Links resident and former homeowners association board member. Neighbors had concerns about the project's density, parking and traffic, she said.

"We're grateful they're here, on one hand, and we're concerned, on the other hand," she said.

The project along Birch Bay Drive would include a public plaza, which could be Birch Bay's badly needed center, said Kathy Berg, steering committee chairwoman.

"For the first time, we'll have a center," she said, "a geographical center and a visual center to Birch Bay that we've been lacking."