THE REAL BLOG

“Now you see it — now you don’t.” In most magic shows, the illusionist hides a rabbit. In Bellingham’s Planning Department, they hide developable land. The Setup City planners love to talk about “limited buildable land.”They point to charts and maps that show a shrinking supply, then use that “evidence” to justify higher density, smaller lots, and new fees. But behind the curtain lies a trick that would make Houdini proud: they don’t just measure land — they make it vanish on