Bellingham City Council authorized during the June 29 regular meeting that work continue on development of Waterfront District planning documents. By executing the 6th Supplemental Agreement to the Interlocal Agreement, Council directed that the Waterfront District Proposed Planning Framework and Planning Assumptions will serve as the basis for developing the documents and that additional adaptive reuse analysis of existing structures be conducted.
The Proposed Planning Framework originally was presented to a joint meeting of Bellingham City Council and Port of Bellingham Commission members on April 20. Both bodies approved adopting the Planning Framework and Planning Assumptions at that time, as a basis to move forward with further development and public review.
During public comment on the Planning Assumptions, there was general support for moving the project forward. Recurrent concerns were related to additional analysis of existing structures, implementation of a financial plan, the importance of sustainability and public process.
The 6th Supplemental Agreement to the Interlocal Agreement provides specific funding allocations to complete work on the planning documents, utilizing currently budgeted resources. The City resource commitment for this work is $332,500, which represents a 50% cost-sharing with the Port of Bellingham.
Also on June 29 Council directed that work be done with the Port of Bellingham to provide "robust transportation alternatives" in the draft Master Plan and other pending documents, as appropriate, including the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), development agreement, and planned action ordinance.
For more information, contact the Waterfront Office.
Updated: Jul 29, 2009
