Bellingham City Council Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

# Bellingham Public Works and Natural Resources Committee — Traffic Safety, Bike Lanes, and Digital Infrastructure On a crisp Monday morning in December, the Bellingham City Council's Public Works and Natural Resources Committee convened for their regular monthly meeting. Chair Hannah Stone gaveled the session to order at 9:00 AM sharp, joined by committee members Lisa Anderson and Jace Cotton. Council members Hamill and Hathman participated remotely, while Council member Lilacust attended in person as an observer. The committee had four substantial items before them — an update on the city's innovative new Community Streets Program, a progress report on the long-awaited Holly Street bike facility improvements, a telecommunications franchise agreement, and approval for much-needed police department building repairs. What emerged over the next hour was a comprehensive look at how Bellingham is tackling transportation challenges, from neighborhood traffic calming to downtown bike infrastructure to the business of keeping city facilities functional. ## Community Streets Program — A Data-Driven Approach to Neighborhood Safety The meeting's centerpiece was a detailed presentation on the Community Streets Program, Bellingham's new resident-driven initiative for addressing traffic concerns on local streets. Shane Sullivan, the city's Transportation Engineer, walked the committee through the program's inaugural year with evident pride in what had been accomplished. "2025 is the first year of the program, and staff worked with the Transportation Commission to both develop the program parameters and to survey, study, and select projects for the first program area," Chair Stone explained in her introduction. The program represents a significant shift toward community engagement in traffic planning, allowing residents to identify safety concerns and prioritize improvements in their own neighborhoods. The numbers told the story of both success and challenge. Over 400 residents responded to the program's online survey during its May-June window, but as Sullivan explained, "when we looked closer at them we saw that many of them were not quite eligible for the program either for — you see about 68% of these were on arterial streets, so the CSP program focuses just on non-arterials." This finding highlighted an ongoing tension in transportation planning. Council member…