Bellingham Design Review Board

The Bellingham Design Review Board held its December 2nd meeting to review two distinctly different early design guidance proposals, highlighting the breadth of development projects navigating the city's urban village guidelines. The session revealed both the flexibility and tensions within the design review process when confronted with unconventional projects that don't fit standard development patterns. The first project—12 storage units at 115 Lottie Street—sparked considerable debate about the applicability of urban village design standards to a garage-style building with no street frontage, located on an alley behind the county's public works building. The second project, a 40-50 unit co-housing development at the former school administration site on DuPont Street, presented the challenge of balancing contemporary residential design with the preservation of a historically significant 1908 building. Both projects received preliminary guidance to move forward, though the storage unit proposal divided the board 2-2 on fundamental questions about design review scope, while the co-housing project faced clear direction to enhance its homage to the historic structure being demolished. The meeting underscored ongoing tensions between environmental preservation, historic character, and practical development constraints in Bellingham's urban villages. #