## Meeting Overview The Whatcom County Planning and Development Committee convened on March 25, 2025, at 12:46 PM in a hybrid format, with members participating both in-person in Council chambers and remotely. Committee Chair Ben Elenbaas presided over the meeting with fellow committee members Jon Scanlon and Todd Donovan. Also in attendance were Councilmembers Kaylee Galloway and Mark Stremler, observing the proceedings. The meeting's agenda carried particular weight, addressing two significant land use matters: proposed amendments to home-based business regulations and the docketing of comprehensive plan amendments. But perhaps the most poignant moment came at the outset, when Planning Director Mark Personius announced that longtime county planner Cliff Strong had submitted his retirement notice, effective at the end of April. The announcement set a bittersweet tone for what would be Strong's final major presentation to the committee. With two substantial items on the agenda and limited time, Chair Elenbaas acknowledged the challenge ahead, noting both items were "too big for the time allotted" but expressing hope to cover both meaningfully. ## A Planner's Swan Song: Home-Based Business Code Reform The committee's primary focus centered on proposed amendments to Whatcom County Code Title 20, specifically addressing home-based businesses and agritourism activities. This wasn't merely technical housekeeping — it represented years of collaborative effort to untangle regulatory confusion that had persisted since 2014. Planning Director Personius set the stage by publicly thanking Cliff Strong for his service: "We will dearly miss him. He has been just a stalwart planner for us and tackled a lot of big projects and we're definitely going to miss him." Chair Elenbaas echoed the sentiment, adding with characteristic humor, "Cliff, in retirement, if you need to take up your time and job, I can always use a good firm hand." Strong then launched into his final major presentation to the committee, explaining the genesis of the proposed amendments. "So in 2014, Council put on the docket to amend the code to allow weddings and special events in specific zone districts who have conditional use permit," he began. The issue had emerged from a flood of inquiries about whether properties could host commercial weddings, receptions, social gatherings, and seasonal farm events. "However, the code doesn't address these uses," Strong explained. "So at the time we found a work around classifying them as home occupations and cottage industries. Even though they didn't really fit these descriptions either." The proposed solution was comprehensive: eliminate the confusing terms "home occupations" and "cottage industries" and replace them with a clearer "home-based business" framework featuring four distinct types based on potential impacts. Type one would correlate to current home occupation classifications, types two and three to cottage industries, and type four would create new allowances for event facilities. But the real breakthrough came through an unexpected collaboration. As Strong recounted, "last time I brought these proposed amendments to you, Council Member Hillenbosch realized that agritourism activities could be read to fall under these rules. And when we started the project, we had no intention of addressing agritourism activities but it was clear Ben was right." Working with Councilmember Elenbaas and Hearing Examiner Rajeev Mujumdar, staff developed agritourism regulations breaking activities into two types: small farm stands with no limits, and larger events like farm festivals and barn parties limited to eight weekends per year. ## The Hearing Examiner's Perspective Hearing Examiner Rajeev Mujumdar provided crucial validation for the effort, though technical difficulties briefly interrupted his remarks. When reconnected, he offered strong endorsement: "Very unambiguous, very easy for me to understand. I think it'll be of great benefit to, in particular, our agricultural community. It'll be of great input to those who want to do small businesses. It provides clear and unambiguous regulation." Mujumdar had previously written a memo highlighting the existing code's problems, noting definitions that included the word "should" and outcomes he found "ridiculous." The proposed amendments, he said, would eliminate ambiguity and provide "great development for transparency and good regulation in Whatcom County." ## Elenbaas's Grassroots Approach Councilmember Elenbaas revealed the pragmatic approach that shaped the amendments: "I always got the understanding from Council that we didn't want to shut anybody down with these regulations." He described putting existing operators on speakerphone during drafting sessions to understand real-world operations. "A lot of times things talk about the size, scale, and intensity of the area, and so I wanted everybody developing the language here to understand exactly what the size, scale, and intensity looked like," he explained. However, one concern emerged around the eight-weekend limit for larger agritourism events. Elenbaas worried about operations like farms hosting seasonal events — corn season, pumpkins, Christmas trees, Easter activities. "Is it because I said Easter?" he joked as mysterious balloons appeared on Councilmember Donovan's video feed, adding levity to the technical discussion. Strong reassured him that most activities would fall under Type 1 agritourism with no limits. "The type two are the bigger things, the big farm, you know, barn parties and farm festivals, that kind of stuff, and that that's what's limited to eight times a year." ## The Challenge of Agricultural Independence The discussion revealed a fundamental challenge in agricultural regulation. Elenbaas noted that many farmers simply operate under the assumption they don't need permits: "Nobody asked for permission. They were just doing it." He pointed out that despite health department requirements for grocery permits at farm stands, "There's only nine farm stands in the entire county that have the grocery permits." "So, there's nine farm stands on Kickerville Road, you know," he said. "Like, I think that a lot of what happens in the ag zone, there's the state agritourism exemptions, and I think the majority of farmers are like, hey, I'm good. I hung the sign by the road, and this is agritourism. I don't need a permit." This independent streak complicated efforts to gather public input, as Elenbaas explained: "The problem is, is that oftentimes I get that whole answer that I was just referring to. Like, I have the agritourism exemption. State law. I don't. I'm exempt. I'm like, well, no, you're not. And they're like, well, yeah, I am. I'm like, okay, well, I'm the guy that makes these rules, and I'm telling you that you're going to fall under them. And they're like, no, no, we're not." ## Moving Toward Public Input Despite the collaborative development process, committee members recognized the need for broader community engagement. Councilmember Scanlon advocated for extensive outreach: "I think we should have a public hearing... maybe ask staff to send it out to, like, the Ag Advisory Committee... Food Systems Committee... Farm Bureau, if we have contact. Balkan Family Farmers." The amendments are scheduled for introduction at the evening council meeting and public hearing on April 15th, providing opportunities for farmers and small business operators to weigh in on regulations that could significantly impact their operations. ## Comprehensive Plan Amendments: Birch Bay Growth Questions The committee's second item proved more straightforward but raised important questions about growth management. Lucas Clark from Planning and Development Services presented revisions to the docketing resolution for comprehensive plan amendments, noting they had addressed council's previous concerns about fee waivers for the Bellingham School District application. However, Councilmember Donovan pressed for clarity on a specific proposal to bring five acres near Birch Bay into the Urban Growth Area. His questions centered on whether existing UGA capacity was sufficient and what the isolated five-acre parcel would mean for development patterns. Clark explained that preliminary analysis showed sufficient capacity within existing UGAs, particularly with proposed zoning changes to allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in UR4 zones. "So, you know, if you want to add a five-acre parcel or not, it's kind of a matter of risk tolerance," he said, referencing potential Growth Management Board challenges. The discussion touched on broader annexation and development questions, with Donovan asking whether properties would come in with predetermined zoning and what density potentials might exist. Clark indicated they would likely zone the parcel comparable to adjacent UR4 zoning. ## A Cautious Approval Councilmember Galloway supported the docketing while flagging future considerations: "I do think at least one or two of my Council Member interests might trigger a docketed process. And so, I wasn't ready to do that now, but I just wanted to flag for Council that it may be that this comes back before us at some point if I or others on Council have like land use related policy and code amendments." When the vote came, Scanlon moved approval, Elenbaas supported it, but Donovan abstained, citing unspecified concerns. The resolution passed 2-0-1, advancing to full council consideration. ## Closing Moments and Digital Whimsy The meeting concluded with characteristic informality as committee members tried to replicate the mysterious balloon effect on Donovan's video. "There's two texts to me that if you do a peace sign, it'll cause balloons to appear," someone observed, though deliberate attempts failed to reproduce the Easter-triggered phenomenon. The conversation drifted to ZZ Top's upcoming appearance at the county fair, with observations about committee members' beards and gentle competition suggestions. It was a light ending to a meeting that addressed significant regulatory questions while marking the end of an era with Cliff Strong's pending retirement. As the committee adjourned early to prepare for the Committee of the Whole meeting, the day's work reflected both the technical complexity of land use regulation and the collaborative relationships that make local government function. The home-based business amendments represented years of careful consultation, while the comprehensive plan docking illustrated ongoing tensions between growth accommodation and community character preservation. The April 15th public hearing would provide the next test of whether the collaborative approach to home-based business regulation truly captured community needs, while the comprehensive plan process would continue its methodical march toward addressing regional growth pressures in Whatcom County.