### Meeting Overview The City Council Planning Committee met on June 23, 2025, to discuss two major shifts in Bellingham's planning approach: transitioning from 25 neighborhood plans to citywide planning processes, and restructuring residential zoning to implement state housing legislation. The committee focused on ensuring equity and consistency while preserving neighborhood character. ### Key Terms and Concepts **House Bill 1110:** Washington state legislation requiring cities to allow multiple housing units (middle housing) on all residential lots, with at least four units allowed outright. **Middle Housing:** Housing types between single-family homes and large apartments, including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, and cottage clusters. **Growth Management Act (GMA):** State law requiring cities to update comprehensive plans every 10 years and conduct buildable lands analysis every 5 years. **Critical Areas Ordinance:** City regulations protecting wetlands, steep slopes, and other environmentally sensitive areas on a citywide basis. **Minimum Density:** Requirements that new subdivisions create lots small enough to ensure a certain number of housing units per acre. **Senate Bill 5558:** Recent state legislation that moved up the deadline for implementing housing regulations from June 2026 to December 2025. **Infill Toolkit:** Existing city regulations allowing context-sensitive development that staff will build upon for permanent middle housing rules. **City IQ:** The city's real-time database system that tracks current development conditions more efficiently than static neighborhood plans. ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Michael Lilliquist | Planning Committee Chair, Sixth Ward Council Member | | Hannah Stone | Committee Member, First Ward Council Member | | Lisa Anderson | Committee Member, Fifth Ward Council Member | | Blake Lyon | Planning & Community Development Director | | Chris Behee | Long Range Planning Manager | ### Background Context Bellingham has operated under 25 separate neighborhood plans since the 1980s, creating 340+ sub-areas with different rules. This fragmented system has become outdated and inequitable, with infrastructure information that's out of sync with current citywide plans. Meanwhile, new state housing laws require cities to allow more housing types on all residential lots. The city is now moving to a simplified, three-tier residential zoning system (low, medium, high) that will be more equitable across neighborhoods while allowing small-scale neighborhood commercial uses. The deadline acceleration from Senate Bill 5558 means the city must adopt all these changes by December 31, 2025, rather than having until June 2026. This creates significant time pressure but staff believe they can meet the deadline with focused effort. ### What Happened — The Short Version Staff presented detailed analysis showing how current neighborhood plan elements (character descriptions, parks planning, utilities, transportation) are now better handled through citywide processes that ensure equity and efficiency. Committee members expressed 90% agreement with the shift while raising concerns about preserving unique neighborhood characteristics, especially along transportation corridors where development transitions to residential areas. For residential zoning, staff proposed combining single-family and multifamily zones into three tiers with minimum densities. The committee supported this direction while asking detailed questions about how minimum density would work for existing lots versus new subdivisions. Members showed strong enthusiasm for allowing small-scale commercial uses in residential areas, with staff targeting adoption by year-end. ### What to Watch Next - July committee meeting: Staff will present the full workload of 12-13 code provisions needed for state compliance - December 31, 2025: Final deadline for adopting all housing-related code changes - Development of small-scale commercial ordinance as a potentially standalone early victory - Planning Commission review process for all proposed changes ---