Bellingham’s Bold Move: Regional Lessons from Another City’s Housing Executive Order
On November 21, 2024, Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund issued an Executive Order (EO) to address Bellingham’s escalating housing crisis. The EO has 13 administrative actions and 3 legislative directives, all aimed at expanding housing options and addressing affordability in Bellingham. This directive focuses on diversifying housing options, streamlining permitting processes, and notably, eliminating parking minimum…
City of Bellingham Housing Policy Roundup – August 2024
Bellingham is currently navigating several significant policy developments, each with the potential to shape the city’s future growth and infrastructure. Here’s a brief update on key policy discussions, along with opportunities for public engagement, where applicable: Parking Reform The Planning Commission is expected to review proposals for parking reform in late summer or early fall.…
Press Release: Enter the Middle Housing Design Competition and win cash prizes!
BELLINGHAM, WA July 1, 2024 The Whatcom Housing Alliance is thrilled to announce the launch of the Middle Housing Design Competition, where innovation meets community transformation! As the City of Bellingham begins to adopt Middle Housing, this competition aims to ignite dialogue about the importance of these diverse housing options, including townhomes, duplexes,…
House Bill 1110 FAQs – How will your city be impacted by the new middle housing state law?
With the passing of the historic HB 1110 middle housing Bill last spring, we want to share some of the FAQs that have been posed by municipalities. WA State Commerce Department has compiled all of them, in an effort to highlight how the passing of this legislation will impact cities. We’ve dropped many of the…
Passing State Legislation Isn’t the Same as Local Adoption of State Legislation
As we noted in this week’s newsletter, Bellingham voted to pass an ordinance that adopted HB 1337. We want to take this opportunity to expand education on the difference between state law and local adoption of state law. Before we get into what was passed in Bellingham, let’s breakdown what was passed at the state…
Letter to City Council Supporting Removal of Parking Minimums in Old Town
Parking continues to be such a driving policy in so many of our housing decisions. Below is the letter that was sent to City Council for review during their deliberations on 6/26. City Council voted 6-0 (Michael Lilliquist was absent), to send back to Committee for more information before voting on the removal of parking…
Spring 2023 All Members Meeting Recap
On Thursday June 8th, we held our Spring All Members Meeting, with our keynote Kaarin Knudson. Kaarin advised on the passing of Oregon’s middle housing bill and she reviewed what has transpired since its passing, with the recent passing of Washington’s own missing middle housing bill, HB 1110. A little about Kaarin: Kaarin Knudson, AIA,…
West Coast Permit Ready ADU Report
The WHA performed a first-of-its-kind, permit ready ADU program survey of nine (9) cities, across three states, to learn the successes, barriers and challenges of these programs. The City of Bellingham will be reviewing the results for consideration. Reach out to the WHA Manager, with more questions, PowerPoint Deck, raw data, addendums and full presentation…