City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner

On August 9, 2024, Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice convened a pre-hearing conference for an appeal filed by A.C. Griffith and North Coast Credit Union (collectively, the appellant) challenging a June 8, 2024 administrative decision by the City of Bellingham. The appeal, assigned file number USC-2024-0016, was received by the city on July 12, 2024, and concerns a permit issued for a tiny home village project on a property in which North Coast Credit Union holds an interest — specifically, a surface parking lot on which the permitted development would eliminate 75 of 81 existing marked parking spaces. The conference was procedural in nature, focused entirely on establishing a discovery and motions briefing schedule and setting an appeal hearing date. No testimony on the merits was taken. The primary substantive tension during the conference was scheduling: the City of Bellingham indicated urgency in resolving the appeal quickly, as the tiny home village project is intended to relocate residents from existing tiny home villages before the end of 2024. The appellant, meanwhile, sought adequate time to conduct limited discovery before responding to an anticipated city dispositive motion. After extended negotiation, the parties reached agreement on a compressed but workable schedule. The appeal hearing was set for October 18, 2024. Key scheduling milestones include a discovery request deadline of August 21, a city discovery response and motions deadline of September 4 and 11 respectively, and a ruling on motions by October 2. Hearing Examiner Rice noted she has a related prior pre-hearing conference in her file involving overlapping parties and a related appeal of a related administrative decision, though she did not closely review that prior matter for purposes of this conference. She indicated she would be appearing remotely for the hearing, consistent with her practice since March 2020. The appeal involves contested issues of legal and factual error in the city's admi