📋 City Council Regular Meeting
Bellingham Design Review Board
← Back to All Meetings
Meeting Summary
The Bellingham Design Review Board conducted an early design guidance meeting for a proposed 31-unit multifamily apartment building at the corner of North State Street and Rose Street. The four-story development includes structured parking, a live-work space on the ground floor, and loft units on the top floor. The project represents a significant infill development in the Urban Village North district, situated between the industrial area and residential neighborhood.
The applicant, represented by Ali Taysi with Service Architects (Whitney Madison and Jed Ballew), presented a complex design responding to the site's unique constraints. The property lacks alley access, forcing creative solutions for garbage collection and parking access. The building will eliminate an existing curb cut on State Street, replacing it with parallel parking, while accessing structured parking via Rose Street.
Key design features include a corner entry with extensive glazing, a mixed-material facade combining fiber cement with different ground-floor materials, and a distinctive gabled roof form for the loft units. The live-work space represents a hybrid approach to ground-floor activation, combining commercial space with residential living in a confined area.
Board discussion focused heavily on four staff-identified areas: Rose Street elevation treatment, roof form and materials, corner entry design, and exterior building materials. The most intensive debate centered on the live-work unit's privacy concerns, with board members expressing significant reservations about the "fishbowl" effect of having residential space directly visible from the sidewalk.
The garbage collection solution proved particularly unique, with SSC agreeing to roll totes from a ground-floor enclosure to the intersection using the ADA ramp. This unconventional approach stems from Rose Street's grade being too steep for standard collection and the absence of alley access.
Study Guide
## MODULE S1: STUDY GUIDE
**Meeting ID:** BEL-DRB-2025-04-15
### Meeting Overview
The Bellingham Design Review Board met on April 15, 2025, to review a proposed 31-unit multifamily building at the corner of North State Street and Rose Street. The project includes a unique live-work unit on the ground floor and structured parking accessed from Rose Street, with the main building entry positioned at the corner.
### Key Terms and Concepts
**Design Review Board:** A city board that reviews building design in certain districts to ensure projects meet design standards and are compatible with neighborhood character.
**Live-Work Unit:** A space that combines residential and commercial uses in one unit, allowing someone to both live and operate a business in the same space.
**TPO Roof:** Thermoplastic Olefin roofing membrane - a white or colored rubber-like material commonly used on flat or low-slope commercial roofs.
**Urban Village:** A zoning designation in Bellingham that allows higher density development with specific design requirements to create walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.
**Structured Parking:** Parking spaces within a building structure rather than surface parking lots.
**Fiber Cement Siding:** A durable building material made from cement, sand, and cellulose fibers, often used as an alternative to wood siding.
**SSC (Sanitation Service Company):** The waste collection company serving Bellingham, which has specific requirements for garbage pickup locations and container types.
**Early Design Guidance:** The first formal design review meeting where the board provides feedback before detailed plans are finalized.
### Key People at This Meeting
| Name | Role / Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Ryan Van Straten | Design Review Board Chair |
| Maggie Bates | Design Review Board Member |
| Robert Wright | Design Review Board Member |
| Coby Jones | Design Review Board Member |
| Sarah Ullman | City Planner |
| Ali Taysi | Applicant Agent |
| Whitney Madison | Service Architects |
| Jed Ballew | Service Architects |
### Background Context
This project is located in downtown Bellingham's urban village district, which encourages higher-density housing development. The site sits at the base of a hill in a transitional area between industrial and residential neighborhoods. The property contains two existing buildings that may be historically significant but don't require preservation of their architectural style.
The project faces unique challenges because it lacks alley access, forcing creative solutions for garbage collection and parking access. Under Bellingham's interim parking ordinance, the project isn't required to provide parking, but the developers chose to include one level of structured parking. The live-work unit represents an attempt to activate the street level while addressing privacy concerns for residential units directly on the street.
### What Happened — The Short Version
The architects presented their design for a four-story building with 31 apartments. The building steps up from the street with the fourth floor having loft spaces, creating a sloped roofline instead of a flat roof. They proposed using fiber cement siding on upper floors with different materials on the ground level.
Board members asked detailed questions about the garbage collection system, which will use SSC dragging containers from a ground-floor room to the street corner. They discussed privacy concerns for the live-work unit, which sits partially below street level with large windows. Several members worried this would create a "fishbowl effect" where pedestrians could look directly into someone's living space.
The board generally supported the project's overall design but wanted solutions for the privacy issue and refinement of materials. They discussed whether the sloped roof should use TPO membrane or other materials, and whether the structured parking should be secured.
### What to Watch Next
- The applicant will return with revised plans addressing the live-work unit privacy concerns
- Final material selections for roofing and siding will be determined
- Security decisions for the parking structure will be finalized
- The project will proceed to final design review before construction permits
---