The latest news from the Blaine City Council meeting on April 14 included the city’s proposal to create multifamily zoning, approval of the Mott’s Hill Overlook housing development and the Plover’s scheduled sail to Blaine.
The city of Blaine’s second town hall preceded the Blaine City Council meeting on April 14 with the public packing council chambers as the majority of speakers voiced opinions on the Blaine Senior Center’s upcoming contract and plans for Blaine Marine Park.
The town halls occur 30 minutes before the regular council meeting on the first Monday of each month. Council approved the town halls as a way to receive community input while public comment remains prohibited from council meetings.
Six people spoke against the city’s proposal to have the Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2 (BBBPRD2) take over Blaine Senior Center operations. BBBPRD2 chairman Sheli Moore was the lone supporter of the parks district taking the contract, saying it was the district’s goal to provide the same options of entertainment and meals for seniors. “Our goal is not to take away from what is there,” she said.
City manager Mike Harmon previously said council was expected to vote on whether to give the operations contract to the senior center or parks district in April.
Blaine residents Steve Seymour, Judy Dunster and Moore requested the city keep Blaine Marine Park as a calm space, which Jim Jorgensen had envisioned when leading the charge to turn the landfill into a park in the late 1980s.
“When we built the park, it was designed to be a very reflective, quiet spot,” Dunster said.
Seymour encouraged council to consider a natural history science center in the park, as Jorgensen had envisioned.
Council is expected to have a study session on two proposals that would fill the park with recreational amenities on Monday, April 28. The proposal that city staff has recommended includes a pump track, pickleball courts and sand volleyball courts.
Community Development Services (CDS) director Alex Wenger presented council with Blaine Planning Commission’s recommendation to change the zoning in two small areas from planned commercial to urban mixed use zoning that would encourage both multifamily and commercial development. The proposal drew criticism from some councilmembers as one of the areas for the proposed zoning changes could potentially be where the Bell Road overpass would need to be built.
The zoning area near the proposed overpass is between Dakota Creek and Peace Portal Drive, split in the middle by Bell Road. The other zoning area would be behind IGA Market, where the Lincoln Mews housing development is expected at H Street and Odell Road. Lincoln Mews has been planned as a 53-unit townhouse project.
The planned commercial zoning district currently allows multifamily dwellings up to 18 units per acre and the urban mixed-use zoning would increase that density to 24 units per acre. It would also establish building height limits and shorten a lengthy permitting process.
Wenger said that while townhomes haven’t previously been allowed in city code, fourplexes and similar multifamily housing styles are permitted. He added only a few property owners would be impacted by the zoning changes.
“The purpose of the zoning text amendment is really to encourage additional housing styles in this district,” Wenger said. “One of the things we have not allowed in the past is townhouses. They are a very common form of development and we simply do not allow them in any district, which is wild to think of considering how popular they are.”
Councilmembers Sonia Hurt, Richard May and Eric Lewis expressed concern about creating multifamily zoning where the Bell Road Grade Separation Project could be constructed. The $80 million project would create an overpass above the BNSF Railway tracks near the Bell Road and Peace Portal Drive intersection. The city has received $9.5 million for the project so far, which only covers 30 percent of the design work. Before federal funding concerns, Harmon said in early January that the project was at least eight years out.
“So you’re encouraging people to develop on a property that could be bulldozed?” Hurt asked city staff.
Harmon said the city won’t have the project’s preliminary design for another two years, so long as the city receives the needed funding. He added that without the preliminary design, the city won’t know the project layout that would show which areas would be impacted.
Councilmember Mike Hill said he supported the multifamily housing because it was needed to improve the city.
Councilmember Rhyan Lopez asked if council would be able to vote on the two zoning areas separately; Wenger recommended council hold a public hearing if it were to consider voting on the two separately. He said the Lincoln Mews developer was eager to start building and the city proposed holding a hearing on Monday, April 28.
“Did I hear you say that somebody is planning something and this is going to hold them up?” Hurt asked Wenger.
Council voted to hold the public hearing on April 28.
Council gave developers the greenlight to build Mott’s Hill Overlook, a housing development on the top of the H Street hill that will have 54 single-family homes when fully built out.
The homes will be on a 16-acre property east of Vista Terrace between H and E streets.
Land, Development, Engineering and Surveying Inc. (LDES) in Ferndale has proposed the housing development and Skeers Construction is building the homes, Wenger said. Skeers also constructed the homes in Bridges Plat, northeast of Lincoln Park.
The first phase would have 33 lots, a trail system and stormwater pond. The remaining 21 homes would be built during the second phase. The homes will be built on 4,250 to 10,250 square foot lots and the development will have a perimeter buffer area.
The hearing examiner held a public hearing on the development’s preliminary plat and planned unit development application before recommending council approve it on March 31.
During the hearing, five people voiced concern with the development over impacts to traffic, the aquifer and stormwater. A developer-paid aquifer study was reviewed by a third party who found no negative impacts to the aquifer as long as the developer followed best practices.
One Blaine resident who goes by the pseudonym Otto Pointer has questioned whether the city was following proper regulations over the past year, which the city has repeatedly denied in emails and during council meetings. Pointer raised concerns that LDES was using the state’s 2019 stormwater manual to design its stormwater system for Mott’s Hill, instead of the 2024 manual, but the city found state law does not require it to update the manual.
Pointer also had said he had filed a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) appeal, which would challenge the decision on the project’s environmental impact. According to the hearing examiner’s recommendation, Pointer never filed a SEPA appeal nor the filing fee.
Lewis asked Wenger if a SEPA appeal cost $2,500, to which Wenger said yes because it costs that much to cover administrative fees.
Greg Berg, who is overseeing the Plover, said the passenger ferry is expected to travel from Bellingham to Blaine via the water on Friday, April 18. The city will need to hire captains and crew to operate the vessel, and set up an electronic ticket system. The city is aiming to have the Plover ready for the summer season by Thursday, May 15, though Berg acknowledged this was an ambitious timeline.
City staff requested council approve a motion to close sections of G, 3rd and H streets in downtown Blaine from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the Spring Block Party on Saturday, May 17.
Harmon said staff was requesting council’s support because the city receives a “tremendous” amount of feedback from upset business owners when it closes city streets for events.
“Right now, with local sales tax down and Canadians not coming down here, closing the street for nonemergency purposes is a serious decision,” he said.
May questioned if the events brought in a net gain for businesses as the city has said events promote the city’s economy. Harmon said that would be difficult for the city to calculate but business owners had push backed on the closures.
“I can see why you punted this to us to make us have to deal with this impossible decision because there are real pros and cons,” May said.
Hurt said she supported the block party closures because they were no more than a block on each street.
Council approved the block party street closures 6-0-1, with Hill abstaining.
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