City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner

The City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner commenced a five-day consolidated SEPA appeal and land use permit hearing for the controversial Woods at Viewcrest development. Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice presided over the first day of what promises to be an intensive quasi-judicial proceeding involving a citizens' group challenging the city's environmental review of a proposed 38-lot subdivision at 352 Viewcrest Road. The appellant, Protect Mud Bay Cliffs, is appealing the city's July 25, 2025 Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) issued under SEPA for the ANC Jones Family LP development proposal. The consolidated hearing also addresses five related land use permits including subdivision, variance, critical area, and shoreline development permits. The day's proceedings focused entirely on establishing procedural foundations and hearing the appellant's first expert witness. Dr. Richard Horner, an environmental engineer with over 50 years of experience in stormwater management, delivered extensive testimony criticizing the project's stormwater management plans as fundamentally inadequate to protect Mud Bay, which the city has characterized as "Bellingham's richest and most biologically diverse estuary." Horner's testimony painted a picture of a project rushing forward without essential technical analysis. He argued that both construction-phase and post-construction stormwater impacts would be "significant adverse impacts" to Mud Bay and Puget Sound, challenging the city's determination that impacts could be mitigated to non-significance. His critique focused on inadequate site characterization, missing hydrologic modeling, inappropriate best management practices, and failure to address the site's steep slopes and erosive soils. The hearing's formal structure reflects its high stakes, with parties represented by experienced land use attorneys and the hearing examiner emphasizing the quasi-judicial nature of the proceedings. Cross-examination of Dr. Horner by