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Whatcom County Planning Commission

WHA-PLN-2025-06-12 June 12, 2025 Planning Commission Meeting Whatcom County 18 min
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The Whatcom County Planning Commission held a public hearing and work session on June 12, 2025, devoted almost entirely to Chapter 6: Transportation Element of the county's 2025 Comprehensive Plan Update. The session featured a lengthy technical presentation from Chris Comeau of Transpo Group Consulting, three public commenters, and a substantive commission work session that produced four formal motions — all of which passed. The most consequential action of the evening was the commission's unanimous decision to remove the Coast-Millennium Trail and Bay-To-Baker Trail from the active transportation network maps in the transportation chapter. The motion, which began as a narrower request from BP Cherry Point Refinery to remove only the trail segment crossing its private property, was amended and broadened by Commissioner Greif to strip both recreational trails from transportation maps 6-2, 6-7, and 6-8 entirely, on the grounds that conceptual recreational trails do not belong on active transportation network maps. The commission also amended Policy 6F-4 to require that active transportation network projects be prioritized using "the best available data" — a notable pushback on the consultant's network, which was built on infrastructure availability (existing road shoulders) rather than observed bicycle usage. This motion passed 5-0 with three abstentions, including the chair. Most significantly from a policy standpoint, the commission voted 6-1 to reject staff's proposed change to Policy 6L-3, which would have directed the county to "adopt" a transportation impact fee on new development. The commission majority preferred reverting to the prior language requiring only that the county "consider" establishing such fees, citing concerns about housing affordability and the regressive nature of development impact fees. Commissioner Hansen cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing that impact fees are the appropriate mechanism for ensuring that the costs of new development

**Motion 1 — Approval of May 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes** - **Vote:** 8-0 (all present) - **Action:** Approved with corrections. Commissioner Browne identified an error on page 4, lines 27-28; the phrase "an acre of houses on it" was replaced with "all it is zoned for." - **What it means:** The official record of the prior meeting is now approved. **Motion 2 (Amended) — Remove Coast-Millennium Trail and Bay-To-Baker Trail from Transportation Maps 6-2, 6-7, and 6-8** - **Originating motion:** Commissioner Dunne moved to remove the Coast-Millennium Trail section on BP's property from maps 6-2, 6-7, and 6-8. Commissioner Greif seconded. - **Amendment:** Commissioner Greif moved to broaden the motion and remove both the Coast-Millennium Trail and the Bay-To-Baker Trail from all three maps entirely, not only the BP segment. Commissioner Browne seconded the amendment. - **Vote on amendment:** 8-0 - **Vote on amended (main) motion:** 8-0 - **What it means:** Both conceptual recreational t…

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**Chris Comeau (Senior Transportation Planner, Transpo Group Consulting):** Presented the proposed transportation element update. Advocated for a minimum-standards-based ATN built on existing road shoulders as the most fiscally realistic path to GMA compliance. Defended the absence of user data in network design as outside his firm's scope. Expressed openness to a future bike-ped plan update as the appropriate mechanism for deeper prioritization. **Mark Personius (PDS Director):** Provided context and mediated commission discussion. Advised caution on the BP/trail motion, suggesting the commission engage Parks Director Bennett Knox before acting. Confirmed the financial analysis is still being developed. Noted the upcoming joint council-commission work sessions. **Pam Brady (BP Cherry Point Refinery):** Testified that the Coast-Millennium Trail's depiction crossing BP property in Maps 6-2 and 6-8 is misleading and that BP was not consulted. Stated BP has no interest in hosting a trail easement and requested removal of the trail from both maps. Confirmed the property is privately held, kept in agricultural production, and currently open to limited public recreational use at BP's discretion. **Bill Geyer (Geyer & Associates, representing Julie Carney):** Supported the urban road designation for Lincoln Road to SR 548. Opposed roundabouts at Blaine Road and Harborview Road as cost-inefficient. Argued the $30 million project estimate is too high and urged the commission to scrutinize Appendix E cost estimates. **Commissioner Rud Browne:** Raised the affordability crisis framing (Bellingham region ranked least affordable small city nationally). Expressed concern about low WTA bus ridership. Supported reverting impact fee language but also backe…
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**Commissioner Rud Browne, on Bellingham's affordability ranking:** "We are number one at the least affordable city, small city in the entire nation. The ratio between income and affordability is the highest ratio in the entire country for its size." **Commissioner Rud Browne, on regulatory costs:** "The time it takes to develop a wetlands mitigation bank to enable offsets — to create buildable land — they've got that process down to 445 days [in Virginia]. You cannot do that at all in Washin…
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| Date | Event | |---|---| | June 26, 2025 | Planning Commission regular meeting — Work session on Chapter 12: Climate Element. Presented by Lauren Clemens (Public Works Climate Impact Manager). Director Personius will be on vacation; Garrett Smith (PDS Assistant Director) will attend. | | June 27, 2025 | Deadline for Aileen Kogut-Aguon to distribute the July 10 meeting packet. | | End of June 2025 | Industrial Lands Needs and Capacity Report (produced by the Port) expected to be delivered. | | July 7, 2025 | Director Personius returns from vacation. | | July 10, 2025 | Planning Commission meeting — Tentative public hearing and work session on Chapter 9: Recreation (Parks Director Bennett Knox to present). Also tentative: public hearing on Chapter 12: Climate Element. Note: Coast-Millennium Trail and Bay-To-Baker Trail depictions will be discussed in the parks context at this meeting. | | July 22, 2025 | Joint Committee of the Whole meeting (Council and Planning Commission), 1:00–2:00 p.m., county council chambers. Fo…

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Before this meeting: - The draft Chapter 6 Transportation Element included Policy 6L-3 language directing the county to "adopt" a transportation impact fee. - The draft Chapter 6 maps (6-2, 6-7, 6-8) showed the Coast-Millennium Trail and Bay-To-Baker Trail on active transportation network maps. - Policy 6F-4 contained no language requiring that ATN investments be based on usage data. - Policy 6A-5 used its original wording without the word "associated." - The May 22, 2025 meeting minutes were unapproved. After this meeting: - Policy 6L-3 will revert to "consider establishing fees" language — the county is not…
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--- ## Meeting Overview The Whatcom County Planning Commission convened on the evening of June 12, 2025, at 5280 Northwest Drive in Bellingham — the same building where highway planners have their offices and where, on this particular Thursday, the parking lot outside hummed with the sounds of nearby summer construction. The meeting opened at 6:00 p.m. under Chair Kelvin Barton. Eight of the nine commissioners were present: Barton, Rud Browne, Suneeta Eisenberg, Nicholas Greif, Jim Hansen (attending remotely), Daniel Dunne, Dominic Moceri, and Scott Van Dalen. Julie Jefferson was absent. Commissioner Eisenberg departed partway through, at approximately 8:30 p.m. The agenda was anchored by a public hearing and work session on Chapter 6 of the county's 2025 Comprehensive Plan update — the Transportation Element. This is not a glamorous chapter. It doesn't produce the policy headlines that land use and housing chapters do. But it is the chapter that determines how Whatcom County plans to move people and goods over the next twenty years, how it intends to comply with newly tightened Growth Management Act requirements for multimodal transportation planning, and — crucially — who pays for all of it. The GMA's 2023 amendments under House Bill 1181 now require counties to adopt level-of-service standards not just for cars, but for pedestrians, bicycles, and transit as well. That mandate drove most of the evening's substance, and it opened debates that touched on housing affordability, the politics of data, the limits of county authority over state highways, and a long-dormant bike trail across industrial property that belongs to BP. The commission also handled routine business: approving minutes from May 22 with two small corrections, receiving a department update from Planning Director Mark Personius, and hearing brief but pointed commissioner comments on regional housing costs that sparked a philosophical exchange before the chair moved things along. --- ## Department Update: Comp Plan Progress and the Summer Schedule Personius opened with two items from recent County Council activity. First, good news: the council had adopted electrical transmission line code amendments on Tuesday night, finally allowing 235 kilovolt transmission lines in Whatcom County — a change that had been in the works for some time. "Congratulations," Personius said dryly. "We're no longer the only county in the state of Washington that doesn't allow 235 KV transmission lines. Majo…
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--- ### Meeting Overview The Whatcom County Planning Commission held a hybrid public hearing and work session on June 12, 2025 at 5280 Northwest Drive in Bellingham. The primary focus was Chapter 6 (Transportation) of the 2025 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan update, presented by Chris Comeau, a senior transportation planner with Transpo Group Consulting. The commission received public comment, deliberated on proposed policy changes, and took several votes to amend the draft transportation element. --- ### Key Terms and Concepts **Growth Management Act (GMA):** A Washington State law passed in 1990 requiring counties and cities to create comprehensive plans that guide growth. The GMA has been updated many times and now requires multimodal level of service standards in transportation elements. **Multimodal Level of Service (MMLOS) Standards:** Measurements used to evaluate how well a transportation system is functioning for *all* users — not just cars, but also people walking, biking, and riding transit. Required by the GMA (via House Bill 1181, 2023) for the first time in this planning cycle. **Active Transportation Network (ATN):** A proposed countywide network of routes designed for pedestrians and bicyclists, primarily based on improving existing road shoulders to a minimum standard. The network is measured by degree of completeness, not by how many people use it. **Concurrency:** A GMA requirement that transportation improvements must keep pace with development. Counties cannot approve new development if it would cause a road to fall below adopted level of service standards — unless improvements are made at the same time ("concurrent with") the development. **Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP):** A rolling six-year list of transportation projects that Whatcom County adopts annually. Projects are selected from a longer 20-year list in the comprehensive plan based on available funding. **Transportation Impact Fee:** A one-time fee charged to new development to pay a proportionate share of transportation infrastructure costs caused by that development. Currently used by five Western Washington counties (Clark, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston). The proposed draft language for Chapter 6 would direct Whatcom County to adopt such fees — this was the subject of significant debate. **Level of Traffic Stress:** A measure used in bicycle planning to describe how comfortable or uncomfortable it feels to bike on a given road, based on factors like traffic speed and volume and the degree of separation from cars. **ADA Transition Plan:** A federally required plan to bring all of a county's public transportation infrastructure — sidewalks, curb ramps, bus stops — into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Whatcom County adopted its ADA Transition Plan in 2021. --- ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Kelvin Barton | Chair, Whatcom County Planning Commission | | Rud Browne | Commissioner, Planning Commission | | Suneeta Eisenberg | Commissioner, Planning Commission | | Nicholas Greif | Commissioner, Planning Commission | | Daniel Dunne | Commissioner, Planning Commission | | Dominic Moceri | Commissioner, Planning Commission | | Scott Van Dalen | Commissioner, Planning Commission | | Jim Hansen | Commissioner, Planning Commission (attended remotely) | | Julie Jefferson | Commissioner (absent) | | Mark Personius | Director, Planning and Development Services (PDS…
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Transportation & Infrastructure Land Use & Planning Housing Government Operations HB 1181 HB 1717 Bp Cherry Point Refinery Bpac Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee Coast Millennium Trail Commission County Council Department Of Ecology Fhwa Lummi Nation Nooksack Tribe Planning Development Services Port Of Bellingham Scj Alliance Transpo Group Whatcom Council Of Governments Whatcom County Planning Commission Whatcom Transportation Authority Wsdot Aileen Kogut Aguon Bennett Knox Bill Geyer Chris Comeau Daniel Dunne Dominic Moceri Garrett Smith Jason Heart Jim Hansen Kelvin Barton Lauren Clemens Mark Personius Nicholas Greif Pam Brady Rud Browne Ryan Morrison Scott Van Dalen Suneeta Eisenberg Accessory Dwelling Units Active Transportation Ada Accessibility Affordable Housing Annexation Budget Finance Climate Action Comprehensive Plan Environmental Equity Inclusion Growth Management Act Impact Fees Infrastructure Lake Whatcom Watershed Land Use Policy Multimodal Level Of Service Parks Recreation Transportation Policy Water Resources