City of Bellingham Transportation Commission

Public testimony highlighted ongoing concerns about TIF methodology, with Planning Commissioner Dan Hunker arguing that current impact fee calculations penalize urban infill development and work against comprehensive plan goals. The commission's discussion revealed tension between using standardized industry methodologies versus creating more nuanced approaches that better reflect Bellingham's transit-oriented development priorities. The grant strategy presentation demonstrated the city's sophisticated approach to securing federal and state transportation funding, with multiple applications pending across programs from Safe Routes to School to freight improvements. Staff emphasized uncertainty in the federal funding landscape, noting that many Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs are reaching their end. The meeting concluded with an engaging workshop on traffic safety behavior change, where commissioners mapped barriers to slower speeds and discussed community messaging strategies. This initiative represents a new approach to Vision Zero goals, focusing on social norming rather than traditional enforcement or infrastructure-only solutions.

**Transportation Impact Fee Program Update — APPROVED 7-1** - New TIF rate: $1,802.05 per person trip (down from $2,830 per vehicle trip equivalent) - Single-family homes: $3,297.75 (16% reduction from 2025 rate of $3,857.29) - Staff recommendation aligned with commission action - Based on $104.1 million in eligible projects over 20-year period - Maintains existing credit structure (15% urban village reduction, 20% downtown/Fairhaven, 80% affordable housing reduction) **January 13, 2026 Meeting Minutes — APPROVED** - Motion by Tim Wilder, second by Cindy Dennis - Passed with one abstention

"The main issue with TIFs, as we're doing them right now, is they act more or less, like every additional level of development as automotive transportation demand, does so uniformly, regardless of density, alternatives, or location." **Miles Silverman, on traffic calming:** "The point here is design our roads to get people to drive slower and use concrete to make that happen." **Commissioner Jamin Agosti, on TIF complexity:** "It seems like we're kind of doing both, where we have a lot of credits to incentivize the development we want, and it might be that the credits and who gets the credits are the more important thing than the TIF rate." **Chris Como, on methodology standards:** "This is a very standard way of doing this, and it's very, very similar to what the city's been doing for 20 years. We're working on transportation impact fee updates in many other communities." **Commissioner Cindy Dennis, on speeding psychology:** "A couple of the areas that we thought of like transition roads that you see as people are, when you're leaving one area and getting to another area, there's that sense of you kind of speed up in that transition time." **Connor Harron, on behavior change goals:** "What are those types of messages that can actually be effective in those really stressful moments when we're tempted to speed?"

**Meeting ID:** BEL-TRC-2026-02-10 # Bellingham Transportation Commission Tackles Impact Fees, Grants, and Speeding Behavior The Bellingham Transportation Commission convened for nearly two hours on February 10, 2026, at the Pacific Street Operations Center, wrestling with complex questions about transportation funding, infrastructure priorities, and how to change driver behavior to reduce speeding throughout the city. ## Meeting Overview Chair Tim Wilder called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM with eight commissioners present and one excused. The commission's agenda centered on three substantial items: a major update to the city's transportation impact fee program, an overview of grant application strategies for 2026, and an early-stage exploration of behavioral approaches to traffic safety. The meeting drew public comment from two speakers who highlighted different aspects of transportation policy. Dan Hunker, an engineer and planning commission member, raised detailed concerns about how transportation impact fees are calculated and applied, particularly for urban developments like neighborhood stores. Miles Silverman, calling in from college, addressed both impact fees and the need for more aggressive traffic calming measures on city arterials. ## Transportation Impact Fee Program Update The evening's most technically complex discussion centered on updating Bellingham's transportation impact fee (TIF) program — the charges assessed on new development to help pay for transportation infrastructure. Chris Como from Transpo Group, accompanied by colleague Brent Turley, presented a comprehensive analysis of the updated fee structure based on the city's new comprehensive plan. "Transportation impact fees are a special section of state law and they're specifically to allow agencies, cities and counties to charge new development growth for the impact that they're creating, but in a proportional way," Como explained. "You're not allowed to charge them for 100% of the transportation impact fees." The update represents a significant shift in methodology while maintaining Bellingham's position as a relatively low-fee jurisdiction. The new calculation changes the city's approach from 18 separate fee zones in 1995 to a single citywide zone today, incorporates person trips rather than just vehicle trips, and emphasizes multimodal transportation projects including pedestrian, bicycle, and transit improvements. Como emphasized the importance of the recent U.S. Supreme Court Sheetz decision, which "is flipping the burden of proof from developers onto cities. In other words, cities need to be able to justify and defend the methodology that they're using to show that what they're doing is fair to developers." The technical presentation revealed that the updated methodology would actually reduce fees for some developments. For a single-family home, the new rate would be $3,297.75 compared to the current $3,857.29 — a decrease of $559.54 or about 14.5%. This places Bellingham well below the Washington state average of $5,486 for transportation impact fees. However, the methodology sparked pointed questions from Commissioner Jamin Agosti about whether the city was adequately incentivizing the type of development called for in the comprehensive plan. "It feels like this is a big important policy document that I just don't have enough information on tonight," Agosti said, expressing concern about how the fees would apply to different types of development like multifamily housing in urban villages or corner stores in residential areas. Agosti referenced specific policies in the new comprehensive plan that call for "innovative new methodologies to measure forecast and mitigate negative impacts" in transportation impact analyses. He questioned whether the current update fulfills that directive or simply maintains existing approaches. Public commenter Dan Hunker had earlier articulated similar concerns, arguing that current impact fee methodology treats all development uniformly regardless of location or transportation alternatives. "Think of an example of a neighborhood convenience store in Roosevelt, the corner of Alabama and Wilbur, something we've highlighted as desirably on plan," Hunker said. "For the memo from staff, the impact fee for this is $176,000 per thousand square feet. This is despite the fact that most trips to the store would likely reduce vehicle transportation demand." Staff emphasized that the update only changes the rate calculation methodology, not the credit and incentive structure that provides fee reductions for developments in urban villages, near transit lines, or that include specific multimodal amenities. These credits can reduce fees by 15-22% for urban village developments and up to 80% for affordable housing. The commission ultimately approved the impact fee update, but Agosti's dissent highlighted broader tensions about whether transportation funding mechanisms adequately support the city's policy goals for compact, walkable development. ## Grant Strategy and Federal Funding Uncertainty Transportation Planner Dylan Casper outlined an ambitious grant application strategy for 2026, targeting millions in state and federal funding for pedestrian, bicycle, and multimodal improvements throughout the city. The city plans to apply for Safe Routes to School funding for the Birchwood Safe Routes to School project, which would remove extruded curbs and upgrade pedestrian facilities around schools. For the WSDOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program, the city is proposing the Meador Avenue/Lincoln Street multimodal improvements, including a roundabout at Lincoln and Fraser streets and shared-use path improvements through the I-5 undercrossing. Under the City Safety Program, Bellingham would pursue funding for citywide pedestrian and bicycle crossing safety improvements, focusing on replacing older amber flashing beacons with more effective Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons and adding curb extensions and pedestrian refuges at key crossing locations. Casper described success with some funding streams: "We submitted two projects for both the same projects for both the state and the Senate budget, or the House and the Senate budget requests." The city has already been awarded $56,826 from WTA's Transit Access Fund for crossing improvements at Racine Street and Barkley Boulevard. However, he cautioned about broader funding uncertainty: "With the federal landscape right now and things are changing a lot with that, a lot of these grant fundings are not state one specifically, but a lot from the federal side are kind of uncertain." Many programs created under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are reaching the end of their authorized funding periods. ## Traffic Safety Behavior Change Program The meeting concluded with an unusual and experimental discussion led by Communications & Outreach Coordinator Connor Harron about developing a community-based approach to reducing speeding behavior. Rather than presenting a finished program, staff engaged commissioners in exercises designed to understand the psychological and contextual factors that contribute to speeding. "The evidence around behavior shifting science is making it really clear that when we want to motivate and influence behavior in a meaningful way, it's really critical that we focus on the most specific indivisible behavior that we can," Harron explained. The focus on speed aligns with upcoming citywide speed limit reductions and research showing speed as the most critical factor in pedestrian survivability during crashes. Commissioners paired off to map barriers to slower driving speeds, identifying factors ranging from road design to emotional states. The discussion revealed insights about "transition zones" where drivers maintain higher speeds when moving between different speed limit areas, the psychology of driving in an enclosed vehicle that creates separation from pedestrians and cyclists, and how different times of day affect speeding behavior. Commissioner Andrea Reiter noted how understanding crash statistics changed her driving: "One thing that I think really made a difference for me in becoming a much more conscientious driver was understanding the relationship between speed and fatality... It's a very, like, self-centered perspective, I feel like I'm safe in my vehicle, but really understanding the like potential implications for people on the other end of the collision." The commissioners identified challenges like overconfident drivers, parents rushing during school drop-off, and wide roadways that encourage higher speeds despite posted limits. They also discussed factors that had helped them drive more slowly, including understanding traffic signal timing and realizing that aggressive driving rarely saves meaningful time. The behavior change program represents a novel approach for the transportation commission, moving beyond traditional infrastructure and policy discussions to examine the human psychology behind transportation choices. ## Closing & What's Ahead The meeting ran over its scheduled time due to the complexity of the transportation impact fee discussion and the engaged nature of the behavior change exercise. Staff reports and the chair's report were deferred to keep the meeting from extending further. The commission will next meet on March 10, 2026, where they are expected to receive additional information about the local road safety plan and potentially revisit questions about impact fee credits and incentives. The behavior change program will continue developing through community workshops and eventually lead to a public art competition for safety messaging materials. The February meeting highlighted the commission's role in balancing technical transportation planning with broader community values about growth, equity, and safety. While the impact fee update represented careful technical analysis, the underlying questions about incentivizing preferred development patterns and changing driving behavior reflect ongoing challenges in creating transportation systems that serve multiple policy goals simultaneously.