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The Waterfront Futures Group

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All three groups are looking at ways to incorporate public process and address access objectives. The groups are meeting weekly in order to complete a Waterfront Initial Findings Report for City Council and Port Commission review in September 2003.

Members of the Natural Systems and the Environment work group have been "walking the waterfront" and shoreline areas of the planning area. This first hand experience of existing conditions and natural systems will help them develop site-specific and system-wide recommendations. Input from environmental resource people and property owners is adding to their understanding, as is review of the extensive research of Bellingham Bay and its waterfront areas that already exists.

Jobs and Economy work group members are researching existing waterfront employment, including job type, salary and benefits. They will compare what they find with emerging information on the concept of living wage jobs. They plan to talk with existing business and property owners to better understand which businesses need to be located on the waterfront, which benefit from being there and which could operate as easily or benefit from locating elsewhere. They will integrate these findings into the "bigger picture" context of economic forces and employment projections.

The Character, Uses, and Design work group is engaged in identifying and describing distinctive aspects of our community and regional "character." Their premise is that understanding what make us special and authentic will lead to redevelopment options, uses, and design best suited to our community. They have researched elements associated with other successful waterfront communities to learn about "best practices. "They will hear from waterfront area property owners and businesses about their issues, ideas and future plans and to meet with other community groups.

The work groups will come together to engage the broader community in review and feedback on their initial findings and work to date.

View the three work groups' draft Initial Findings Reports under development between June and September of 2003. They will be reviewed in their final form at a joint meeting of the City Council and the Port Commission on September 29, 2003. The public will be able to review and comment on these findings as well. The Elements and Outcomes Chart (link) will be developed further and was adapted from the Cleveland Waterfront Coalition - Project BLUE framework. Their work can be seen at http://www.ecocitycleveland.org/.

Another Waterfront Perspective … a closer look at the waterfront turns up many unrealized opportunities for revitalization – improvement of public access, creation of new economic activity, preservation and restoration of historic structures and sites, and the general creation of new life and energy.” Waterfront Revitalization for Small Cities, J.W. Good and R.F. Goodwin, 1992