--- ### Meeting Overview The City of Bellingham's Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee met on June 1, 2026, chaired by Council Member Jace Cotton. The meeting featured two agenda items: a joint presentation from the Port of Bellingham's Regional Economic Partnership and the WWU Small Business Development Center (SBDC) on their 2025 accomplishments and a new five-year economic strategy under development, followed by a work session on downtown commercial vacancy trends and strategies to address them. --- ### Key Terms and Concepts **Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS, referred to as "SDS" or "SEDS" throughout the meeting):** A five-year regional planning document — in this case covering 2027–2031 — that sets goals, sub-goals, and measurable action items for economic development across the City of Bellingham, Port of Bellingham, and Whatcom County. It must be approved by the Whatcom County Council. **Trifunders:** The informal historical name for the three-way funding partnership among the City of Bellingham, Port of Bellingham, and Whatcom County that supports the Port's regional economic development programs, including the WWU SBDC. **Regional Economic Partnership Interlocal Agreement:** A formal legal agreement between the City of Bellingham, the Port of Bellingham, and Whatcom County that establishes shared funding commitments for collaborative economic development programs. **WWU Small Business Development Center (SBDC):** A federally and locally funded program, administered through Western Washington University, that provides free one-on-one confidential business counseling, training, and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners in Whatcom County. **Stalled Assets:** A category used in the city's downtown vacancy analysis referring to properties that have been vacant for an extended period, often due to complex ownership situations, unrealistic pricing, structural challenges, or other factors that make them difficult to reactivate through normal market forces. **Vacancy Registry:** A proposed local policy tool — not yet authorized — that would require owners of vacant downtown commercial spaces to register their properties, potentially linked to compliance requirements or fees to incentivize activation. **Vacancy Tax:** A potential state-level policy tool — currently not permitted under Washington state law — that would impose a tax on owners of long-term vacant commercial properties to create a financial incentive to lease or sell. **Historic Tax Credit Program:** An existing state and/or federal incentive that allows owners of qualifying historic buildings to deduct the cost of eligible improvements from their tax liability over a set number of years, effectively reducing the after-tax cost of renovation. **Tenant Improvements (TIs):** Physical changes or renovations made to a commercial space to make it suitable for a specific tenant's use. These can be a major financial barrier to filling vacant storefronts, especially in older downtown buildings. **Pedestrian Core:** The subset of Bellingham's downtown study area — within the larger 61-block, 204-acre main street boundary — where the concentration of foot-traffic-oriented retail and services is highest, and where the city found a vacancy rate of 14.6%. **Pre-Inspection Program:** A city tool that allows businesses or property owners interested in occupying or renovating a downtown space to invite the Building Ser…