At the risk of seeming premature, there can be no question regarding the importance of our first general meeting following a two-month hiatus. In the opinion of the City’s Planning Department, Bellingham’s northern neighborhoods have become unwieldy and over-sized because of successive annexations. As a result, the Planning Director has called for a review of Guide Meridian/Cordata boundaries as part of the 2009 Comprehensive Plan/Neighborhood Plan Amendment Process.
The essence of the change would transform the present neighborhood from multi-use to residential by moving commercial main stem Guide Meridian into the Meridian Neighborhood. Also transferred to Meridian would be commercial laden West Bakerview Rd. along with the Sterling area plus land adjacent to the airport often referred to by City planners as a “no man’s land.” Other possible boundary changes, subject to a series of evaluations--first by the Planning Commission--involve the Meridian, King Mountain and Mount Baker Neighborhoods. The process includes a series of evaluations by the Planning Director or authorized representative, the Planning Commission and the City Council. It is anticipated the Council will hold a public hearing sometime in November should the proposal including zoning changes be approved to that point. Making the presentation for the Planning Department at the September general meeting will be Planner Pat Carman and Communications Coordinator Nicole Oliver.
In what certainly can be described a related issue, developer Blair Murray will kick off the program with a presentation about his Tin Rock Project. Murray will describe what he has in mind for a 45.7 acre proposed development located on the east side of Cordata Parkway between Horton and Stuart Rds.
The meeting, to be held Tuesday, September 8, at 7 p.m. at Birchwood Presbyterian Church, is unquestionably the most important one in the nearly four-year history of your Neighborhood Association. Please come to the meeting to hear and be heard. There are nearly 3,000 people currently living in what is now called Guide Meridian/Cordata. Surely, 10% of us can make it to the meeting.
Looking back on nearly four years of our being an official Bellingham Neighborhood,
it is interesting not only to reflect upon our success but, also, to observe a
new Neighborhood Association being created nearby. Bruce Alexander and Kevin Waltz are co-chairs
of what will become the King Mountain Neighborhood Association currently located
east of us between Guide Meridian St. and the Irongate Industrial area, the
latter plus Barkley visualized as coming Neighborhoods. King Mountain’s current 635 acres are owned
by developers Ralph and Mike Black who plan an urban village. The area quite likely will be enlarged north
of there plus Queen Mountain to the east.
Still alive is the possibility of a bridge over Guide Meridian that
would provide linkage between the two Neighborhoods.
City Hall’s Planning Board of Directors and Planner Kathy
Bell. Thoroughly discussed was Grandview
Cordata Green with construction scheduled to begin this month south of June Rd.
and whose eastern access is currently blocked off Stuart Rd. Eleven
houses will be built on Sumac and Violet Streets as Phase 1 gets under way;
included are 77 lots north of June Rd. A
myriad of questions produced the following:
The old County PUD (Planned Unit Development) contract that expires
October, 2010 controls the area with the City gaining leverage should developer
Ronald Jepson and the City extend it; there is no chance for parks and trails
at present; the County will monitor buffers with the City initiating enforcement
at an undisclosed later date; a scheduled clubhouse will not be built until
much later in the development of the project’s 64 acres; the timing of June Rd.
completion plus the widening of Aldrich Rd. won’t happen until Phase 11, very
late in the game. Unclear is the
location of condominiums in Phase 1.
According to the Planning Department, the developer has the option to go
single family. The meeting’s bottom
line, as with much of Cordata development, suggests an unfortunate inheritance by
the City of casual county ground rules in an area largely disregarded for far
too many years. Inescapable are the
fingerprints left behind by a series of developers.
Deadline Dash….Bellingham
International Airport may become a connecting point to Hawaii, according to
Allegiant Air. The airline is
considering the possibility although it can’t happen for at least a year. Something larger than the MD80 (150
passengers) will be required….Life Safety Division of the Bellingham Fire
Department reminds us to make certain that smoke alarms be installed in every
bedroom and on every floor….With Marriott International Corporation
hotel construction underway at Bakerview Rd. & Northwest Ave., we’ve just
learned the Sterling Rd. area is being considered for easement. Construction sidewalks and nearby roundabout
construction will be open for public discussion when the roundabout bid is
awarded. Meanwhile, Cordatans can
contact WTA for special bus service during the construction when the handicapped need a safe way in and
out of Sterling….’Hamsters of varying persuasions are keeping an eye on a
rooming house in Seattle’s University District where $500-$600 gets you a room
and shower about the size of a parking space.
Utilities include broadband Internet and, yes, there are six parking
spaces for the 46 residents living in an already crowded neighborhood….Don’t
forget to cast your primary vote. You
have until August 19.
More later, Bob Sanders,
aided by the nimble fingers of Micah Caucutt
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