News Alert….News
Alert….The Planning & Development Commission will take under
consideration developer Blair Murray’s Tin Rock Project for Cordata. The 7
p.m. City Hall session tomorrow night (October 8) will determine
the future of Murray’s
45.7 acres on Cordata Parkway
between Horton and Stuart Rds. It’s all
about rezoning the property. Murray explained his
hopes and dreams at the September general meeting. Your board of directors has a number of
questions contained in a letter, written by board member Ralph Wenning, to be
read at the meeting.
Such vital subjects as
a South Springs progress report and the challenges of neighborhood crime and
what to do about it are on deck for the GM/CNA general meeting to be held
Tuesday, October 13, at the Birchwood Presbyterian Church. The 7
p.m. session will feature developer Ted Mischaikov and Katrin
Dearborn of Bellingham’s
Crime Prevention Unit. Mischaikov will
provide details of a possible purchase by the City of north Cordata land
formerly owned by D.R. Horton. The
property would be used to create another Cordata park. Dearborn
will introduce such subjects as Block Watch and vandalism. Appearing November 10 will be Ted Carlson,
Bellingham Public Works Director. He has
been in charge of the department’s 240 full-time employees since May.
“Meet the
Candidates,” a forum designed to help you make up your mind as election day
approaches, will be held Tuesday, October 20, from 7-8:30 p.m. at Birchwood
Presbyterian Church, 400 Meadowbrook Court, off Cordata Parkway. All candidates running for open offices
including Port, City Council and Whatcom County Council have accepted invitations
to speak. Questions from the audience
are likely to involve such subjects as: Big Box Expansion, Cordata Branch
Library, Lake Whatcom Water and Urban Growth.
GM/CNA Co-President Beverly Jacobs will moderate.
The impact of new
housing on Cordata was the principle theme of a letter written to the
City’s Planning Commission by Julie Guy, co-founder of GM/CNA. The letter, read by her to the Commission on
September 17 with copies to Mayor Dan Pike and the City Council, underlined the
contrast between older neighborhoods “concerned about squeezing in more housing
in the vacant or rundown areas” and Cordata where three neighborhoods “are
bursting at the seams with new units.”
Drawing attention to 1,134 residential units planned for the next few
years, Guy suggested: “This is not infill, it is major development.”
Raising the looming specter of Cordata Park,
20 acres of mostly wetlands finally awarded to the community a year ago, Guy
commented about promises unfulfilled.
One of the problems of park development involves Horton Rd whose extension is vital for truck
access. That extension is currently “scheduled”
as far off as six years.
Marriott, a leader in
the hotel industry, has been approved for construction of a 204-room inn at the
southeast corner of the Northwest
Avenue and West Bakerview Road intersection. A first kind venture, the hostelry will join
two Marriott brands—TownPlace Suites (83 rooms) and SpringHill Suites (121
units). Construction is scheduled to start
next spring or summer. The five-story building calls out for a top
floor restaurant with commanding views in a city where dining affords far too
few. Meanwhile, the GM/CNA is committed
to making certain that building plans, including an access sidewalk for Sterling
Neighborhood residents, are carried out as approved.
Deadline Dash….Another
one of those subjects that won’t go away is Fairhaven Highlands, certain to
attract an overflow crowd on October 20 at City Council Chambers beginning at 7 p.m. The public hearing will be about a Draft
Environmental Impact Statement dealing with the 739-unit project proposed in
April, 2005….Getting his ducks in order is activist Clay Butler who wants to
put severe limits on fireworks in Bellingham.
He pitched your GM/CNA board of directors recently for approval and we told him to go for it…To
no one’s surprise, any City Council decision regarding an expansion of big box
stores won’t be made until at least January.
Meanwhile, Bellingham Mayor Dan
Pike has opened revenue-sharing talks with Ferndale Mayor Gary Jensen. Our neighbor to the north earlier this year
lifted nearly all big box size restrictions giving the green light to any
stores leaving Bellingham….Congratulations and thanks for a terrific job go to
our Neighborhood gardeners who celebrated a highly successful year with a picnic/pot
luck on the last Sunday in September.
There is something approaching the spiritual about more than 50 highly
diversified people coming together to create bountiful harvests. Event committee members Jim Chow, Maureen
Vaughn, Becky Pillai, Lisa Moss, Sarah Pree, Juana Banuelos & Rachel
Graybill did a marvelous job….While publicity for the Cordata Neighborhood
Gardens almost always has
been through traditional means, let’s not forget the Bellingham Business
Journal’s website and a story featuring a photo of Dee Andrews. You can read it at: http://bbjtoday.com/blog/community-garden-takes-root-cordata/3569. The story is by BBJ editor Lance Henderson….Praise
music singer/songwriter Cheri Keaggy will be featured in a concert Saturday,
October 17, at 7 p.m., at
Birchwood Presbyterian Church. The
fundraiser is for the church’s Guatemala Mission Team, now in its sixth
year. Tickets ranging from $10 to $25
can be obtained at the church (733-8860)….Too early for this edition of The Insider was an announcement by Whatcom Community College that it was offering
free two-day classes late in September titled: “Understanding Twitter.” Perhaps class graduates, now armed with rudimentary
knowledge, will demand additional instruction--something along the lines of
“Connecting With Your Twitter Audience” or “Writing Exciting Twitter.”
More later,
Bob Sanders
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