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Real Briefings

Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission

BEL-MNA-2025-05-21 May 21, 2025 Committee Meeting City of Bellingham
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The Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission received a comprehensive presentation on the future of Bellingham's neighborhood plans as part of the city's comprehensive plan update. Planning Director Blake Lyon and Senior Planner Chris Comeau explained that the 25 existing neighborhood plans, adopted beginning in 1980, will not be carried forward by reference into the new Bellingham Plan due to state legislative requirements and the need for a more equitable, simplified land use system. The presentation outlined how recent state legislation, particularly House Bill 1110 (middle housing), has fundamentally changed local zoning requirements, making the neighborhood-specific approach obsolete. The city is moving toward a citywide planning model that staff argues will be more equitable, accessible, and efficient while still preserving neighborhood character through other means. Commission members raised significant concerns about losing neighborhood identity, attracting out-of-state developers, displacing renters, and maintaining community input in planning decisions. The discussion revealed deep tensions between state-mandated housing goals and local neighborhood preservation values.

No formal votes were taken as this was an informational presentation. The key policy direction communicated was that neighborhood plans will cease to have regulatory power when the Bellingham Plan …

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**Neighborhood Plan Transition:** Staff explained that the current system of 25 neighborhood plans with 435+ individual sub-areas creates excessive complexity. The new approach will rely on citywide policies in the comprehensive plan while maintaining urban village plans and institutional master plans. Chris Comeau described the current system as requiring staff to "open up many, many documents" for each project review. **Middle Housing Implementation:** The discussion covered how House Bill 1110 allows up to 4 units per lot (6 with affordability components) citywide, fundamentally changing the single-family zoning paradigm that neighborhood plans were built around. Staff emphasized that design standards must be objective rather than subjective and cannot be more restrictive for middle housing than single-family homes. **Equity and Inclusio…
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**Chelsea (King Mountain):** Expressed concerns about infrastructure capacity, particularly the lack of elementary schools in growing areas, while supporting objective design standards that give property owners more options. **Barbara:** Strongly defended neighborhood plans as reflections of community values and character, worrying that standardization would eliminate what makes different neighborhoods unique. Questioned whether equity goals could be achieved without neighborhood-specific protections. **Louise:** Raised concerns about out-of-state developers potentially "wiping out neighborhoods" and creating "blocks and blocks of absentee landlords," arguing that current single-family zon…
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**Blake Lyon, on system complexity:** "Our complexity, that beehive of, you know, we have a zoning table that relates to just 7 homes in Bellingham. That's the effort we're putting in to create ease in the system that will benefit everyone." **Chris Comeau, on neighborhood character:** "What makes our neighborhoods great is not 430, you know, sub areas in tables and complexity. It's the Sunnyland stump. It's the Birchwood International Market. It's the Fourth of July up there in the Columbian…
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- Bellingham Plan must be adopted by end of 2025 per state deadline - Environmental Impact Statement public comment period currently open (county-led) - Council work sessions planned on future residential zoning, including potent…

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After this meeting, commission members have a clear understanding that neighborhood plans will lose regulatory authority by year-end. The city has committed to not adopting neighborhood plans by reference in the new comprehensive plan, marking the end of…
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## Meeting Overview The May 21, 2025 meeting of Bellingham's Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission was dominated by a detailed presentation from Planning Director Blake Lyon and Senior Planner Chris about the city's comprehensive plan update and the future of neighborhood plans. The evening-long discussion revealed deep tensions between the city's push for streamlined, citywide planning and residents' concerns about preserving neighborhood character while managing growth pressures from state-mandated housing laws. The meeting drew commissioners representing neighborhoods across Bellingham, from established areas like York and Fairhaven to newer developments like King Mountain. What emerged was a complex conversation about equity, housing affordability, development pressures, and the balance between simplifying regulations and maintaining local identity. ## The End of Neighborhood Plans as Regulatory Documents The central revelation of the evening was that Bellingham's 25 neighborhood plans, some dating back to 1980, will no longer be adopted by reference in the city's updated comprehensive plan. These documents, along with their 435 individual land use sub-areas, represent what Chris described as a "beehive" of regulatory complexity that city staff can no longer effectively administer. Chris explained that the current system requires staff to navigate numerous documents for any given project: "You can imagine opening up many, many documents—used to be spreading out the binders on the counter downstairs, and now it's opening up all the windows on the computer and trying to navigate through them." This complexity, he argued, creates barriers for both residents trying to understand what can happen in their neighborhoods and builders attempting to navigate the system. The neighborhood …
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Land Use & Planning Housing Government Operations HB 1110 HB 1220 HB 1337 Bellingham School District Habitat For Humanity Mayors Neighborhood Advisory Commission Planning Commission Whatcom County Alex Barbara Blake Lyon Chelsea Chris Comeau Gary Louise Michael Accessory Dwelling Units Affordable Housing Comprehensive Planning Equity Inclusion Growth Management Act Housing Policy Infrastructure Investment Lake Whatcom Watershed Land Use Policy Middle Housing Neighborhood Plans Rental Housing Urban Growth Area Zoning