Bellingham City Council - Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee

The Bellingham City Council's Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee unanimously approved an experimental ordinance granting the Public Works Director authority to temporarily close downtown alleys on recommendation from the Police Chief to disrupt entrenched drug dealing activity. The measure, designated AB 24867, passed 3-0 and will advance to the full City Council for final consideration. The proposal targets specific downtown alleys where data shows concentrated criminal activity, with 108 violent incidents and 342 drug-related calls in just a three-block section during 2025, including 89 overdoses. The city spent $185,000 of its $234,000 annual downtown cleaning budget on just two alley sections, with over $40,000 already spent in early 2026 on the same areas. Deputy Administrator Forrest Longman characterized the initiative as an "experimental, targeted, and temporary measure" designed to provide respite to downtown businesses and employees facing dangerous conditions while creating space for crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) improvements like enhanced lighting and security cameras. The ordinance would make unauthorized entry a misdemeanor but staff emphasized their hope to issue zero citations through education and deterrence rather than prosecution. Committee members acknowledged this represents a short-term intervention within a broader strategy that includes the mobile opioid treatment center, Way Station services, community court programs, and $15 million in housing services funding. The discussion revealed tension between enforcement approaches and service provision, with officials emphasizing their focus on disrupting predatory drug dealing rather than criminalizing substance use disorder or homelessness.

- **AB 24867 - Temporary Alley Closure Ordinance**: Passed 3-0 by committee - Grants Public Works Director authority to close alleys on Police Chief recommendation - Makes unauthorized entry a misdemeanor offense - Provides access retention for businesses, property owners, vendors, utilities, sanitation workers, and emergency personnel - Designed as temporary, experimental measure with ongoing assessment

**Deputy Administrator Forrest Longman, on program goals:** "The intent of this alley closure ordinance is to provide the framework for an experimental, targeted, and temporary measure to disrupt the pattern of drug activity that's made some of these alleyways harmful for everyone, including the people that spend time there." **Forrest Longman, on enforcement approach:** "This is not an intent to criminalize this explicitly. We're hopeful that this would result in 0 citations." **Mayor, on downtown vision:** "That commitment to that neighborhood being everyone's neighborhood, we know the data is very clear in the heat map, the costs for the solid waste removal in that section of alley. That is not a space that's accessible for all right now." **Mayor, on enforcement focus:** "And our focus when we talk about enforcement, it's enforcement on predatory drug dealing. I want to be clear, this is not about people that are navigating the challenges of substance use disorder." **Deputy Chief Jay Hart, on persistence of problems:** "I've been here for 26 years, and in those 26 years, there are alleys downtown that I've have seen high rates of crime continuously. And no matter what we've done to try to stop that from happening, it just continues." **Council Member Williams, on behavior disruption:** "And from what we're hearing and what the mayor has just said and everything else, this is just like when we passed the fentanyl ordinance a few years ago. The purpose of that was more to disrupt the behavior, not to put people in jail per se."