Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

 Lynden, Washington’s Mayor Jack Louws was recently quoted that Lynden may be at a “financial and social crossroad,” and  challenged the city to reinvigorate its retail base to provide enough tax revenue for a growing population needing city services.

The mayor said the Lynden’s City Council and citizens could choose a status-quo approach or one that is proactive with vision and commitment. Louws asked, “Are we ready to reclaim Lynden’s status within the greater community of Whatcom County as the North Whatcom hub of commerce?”

As an addition to his five-page message, which he read, Louws asked if it may be time to reconsider lifting Lynden’s 65,000-square-foot limit on the size of retail stores, as people go elsewhere to buy their clothing, appliances and more.

The city, he said, could change regulatory impediments to retail business; try to maximize tourism opportunities; and work with the Chamber of Commerce and the county Small Business Development Center to do a market analysis as a blueprint.

Louws also mentioned land west of Guide Meridian Road as a possible place for “core retail not currently available in our community,” and doing the rezoning to accommodate it.  “I would like our community to debate and decide a clear direction for our future, and I’m personally inclined toward taking action,” the mayor said.  Lynden may have a “narrow window of opportunity” to move forward with an action plan, as neighboring communities also consider their situations, Louws said.

I think the Mayor might have been referring to the big decision the City of Ferndale is weighing currently with the Pioneer Plaza project proposed for the area near Axton Road and Barrett Road. If Ferndale’s Pioneer Plaza project were to become a reality, that would certainly have an effect on Lynden’s retail sales.  The Pioneer Plaza project, in it’s proposed state, would include about 160 condominiums, 775,000 square feet of retail space, 234,000 square feet of office space and several four-story parking garages.

This amount of retail next to I-5 and about 7 miles north of Bellingham, Washington’s largest retail outlets would create some competition for retail dollars.  Currently Ferndale takes in one of the lowest retail percentages for cities in Whatcom County when figured against their population base.  Lynden, however has done much better than Ferndale and other Whatcom County cities, except the bigger Bellingham, when it comes to taxes that come into the city budget based on sales dollars.

Last year about this time it was announced locally that Lynden was the fastest growing town in Whatcom County.  Lynden has grown by 1,730 people over the last 6 years, a 19.2% increase, bringing the population to 10,750.  I have to say Lynden’s Mayor is doing his job and looking after his city by looking forward.  How can one argue with hard facts like a 19.2% increase in your population and realize where are the tax dollars going to come from to provide services.  The west side of the Guide would have the least negative affect on Lynden’s population growth and far from where Lynden WA Neighborhoods are growing.

So…Id have to say that Mayor Louws is forward thinking for the city of Lynden.  I’m quiet certain that once Guide Meridian road improvements is completed over the next couple years, that will help tremendously with folks wanting to drive north to visit and spend dollars in the Gorgeous town of Lynden, Washington. 

Mayor Louws went on to acknowledged that any path has an impact on the quality of life, but said, “With some changes, I feel we, as a city government, could reap a greater financial reward that would allow us to provide more services in the future, without materially impacting the quality of life in our residential districts and without raising taxes.”

Lynden’s preliminary 2008 budget included the following:
     • No anticipated property tax rate increase.
  • A revenue increase from new construction and reassessment within the 1 percent legal limit, plus $132,648 banked levy capacity.
  • Sales tax estimated the same as 2007.
  • Salaries and benefits according to negotiated increases.
  • Support of seven community organizations, including the Lynden Chamber of Commerce, Lynden’s senior center, Lynden YMCA, and the museum.
  • Completion of a public restrooms building in downtown Lynden.
  • A Police Department patrol sports utility vehicle (still in discussion).
  • In Public Works, a west Lynden utility extension and replacement of a water line along Guide Meridian to River Road.
  • In Streets, replacement of the 14th Street bridge, Benson Road rebuild design, West Main Street construction (grant funding), and reconstruction of the 17th Street culvert.
  • In Parks, field renovation at Bender, parking improvements at City Park, possible park land acquisition. Via partially by way of Lynden Tribune.

Brought to you by Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Lynden WA real estate - Northwest Living

Building an urban village from scratch is fraught with difficulties, but Stowe Talbot believes his company is on the right track with the Barkley District.  The area is in the midst of a crucial step, as residents start moving into the first condominium units while the rest of the area is undergoing a construction boom. The flurry of activity includes three buildings under construction with work expected to begin on at least four other projects in coming months.

For Talbot, it has become a tricky situation of balancing market forces with the creation of an area that has the right mix of office, residential and retail.

“We weren’t experts in community planning when this was started, but we’ve learned quite a bit over the years,” said Talbot, vice president of the Barkley Co. “We’ve seen that it’s difficult for urban villages to succeed, and we want to buck that trend.”

The challenge in adding condos to the mix of office and retail businesses is not letting the residential be overwhelmed by other interests in the area.

“It’s easy to sell the property off to retail on a busy street, so we want to be careful,” Talbot said.

INFILLING

The current plan is to fill in the property between Barkley Village and the offices on Rimland Drive on the north side of the property.

The Drake Building, offering condos and retail, is almost completed. Peoples Bank is building a 20,000-square-foot branch and administrative offices. Nearby, the Laurel Building, a mixed-use office and retail building, is under construction. Across the street on the corner of Newmarket Street and Barkley Boulevard will be the Cornerstone Building, offering retail space and 70 condominium units.

Once the infilling around Newmarket Street is complete, the Barkley Co. will focus on nearby lots, possibly adding another office building just north of the Cornerstone site but also adding residential to the east. There are no plans for development on the trails and pond east of the Haggen store.

“Our overall goal is to make an area where people get out of their cars and walk around,” Talbot said. “That’s why we’re being patient with the residential. If we turn the entire area over to retail, it becomes a place that people only drive to and shop.”

RESIDENTIAL MARKET

While introducing residential at this point fits within the overall area plan, it comes at a time when the overall real estate market is slowing down.

Talbot said he’s been pleased with the results, given the current housing climate. According to the company Web site, six of the 36 units at The Drake are taken. The building just had its grand opening celebration for the public earlier this month.

“I think it’s gone well under the circumstances,” Talbot said. “We are building to our schedule. This is an area that is going through a 30 to 40 year build out, so we can’t worry about the ups and downs each year brings in residential real estate.”

One lesson Talbot said they’ve learned with their first foray into residential is adding variety. The Drake building offers just studio or one-bedroom units. Their next residential project, the Cornerstone, will offer more rooms. As they ponder other residential projects, they’ll also be considering options such as apartments and maybe even a few single-family homes.

VARIETY

Sticking to a planned layout is attracting different businesses to the area. Linda Rudy, office manager at the dental office of Ron Moreno, said the staff and the clients are excited about the plan to move into a new two story building near Heath Tecna next summer.

“We feel lucky to be able to move to the Barkley area and have a new building,” Rudy said. “It’s a great central location, and the Talbot company has been great. They seem to give more than they take when it comes to working with a business that’s moving to the area.”

Andy Schmidt, an orthodontist who is new to the area, agreed with Rudy. He’s working in a temporary space now until he can occupy the second floor of the new building that the Moreno dental practice is moving into.

“It’s exciting to be a new practice that is moving into a growing area that already has a wellestablished professional core,” Schmidt said.

THE EXTRAS

Along with the introduction of residential units and the addition of office and retail businesses, the Barkley area is also adding public amenities.

The Barkley Co. is working out the final kinks for a branch library to go into The Drake Building. If all goes as planned, the library would be open at the beginning of the year with a selection of books as well as a drop-off location. The space could also be used as a community meeting area after hours, said Jeff Kochman, president of Barkley Co.

“A library was at the top of a list of desired public uses for that space,” said Kochman. “We also hope to have a cafe or bakery take over an adjacent space to create some walking traffic for that area.”

Also in the works for public amenities are trails and more parks, possibly a dog park.

“We’re concentrating on filling in the pieces we think are still missing,” Talbot said.

One area that has been drawing a fair amount of interest is southwest of the Barkley District, just west of the Haggen store. This undeveloped property will be one of the last to be developed and so far is the least planned out. Talbot thinks at this point it will eventually become residential. It’s a little tricky, however, because of stormwater issues.

“It’s a great piece of property that will allow us to consider a variety of options, but we’re in no hurry to develop it,” Talbot said.

Size: About 250 acres mostly owned by the Talbot family, roughly stretching from the Woburn Street Haggen store north to the Heath Tecna building, west to St. Paul Street and east going up Brandywine Way.  via Herald

Buildings under construction:

Building soon to be under construction:

• The Cornerstone: Retail on the ground floor and about 70 condominium units, on the northeast corner of Newmarket Street and Barkley Boulevard. Construction is expected to begin next year.
• Dental office: A two-story building with Ron Moreno DDS on the first floor and Schmidt Orthodontist on the second floor, south of the Heath Tecna building and north of Barkley Boulevard. Construction by Faber Brothers is expected to begin in January and be completed by next summer.
• DEA office building: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency will put up a two-story building at 1855 Barkley Boulevard, near Heath Tecna. The first floor will have parking and some office space; the second will have offices. The DEA is moving to Bellingham from its Blaine facility, which is being torn down as part of the new port of entry project, said Rhett Fonseca, public affairs officer for the agency. The DEA expects to be in the new building by April.
• Chiropractic office: Adich Clinic has plans to build a facility south of Heath Tecna within a year.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA 98225 - Bellingham Real Estate

 Whidbey Island could some day soon gain a new city with Freeland after some recent work by the Island County Planning Commission and residents of the Freeland area. 

After six hours of deliberation last Tuesday, the Island County Planning Commission recommended designating Freeland, WA a “non-municipal urban growth area,” effectively eliminating a formidable barrier in the local push for incorporation.

This is great news for the Freeland area of Whidbey Island becuase of all the housing growth in and around Holmes Harbor.  The formation of Freeland into an urban growth area will bring better comprehensive planning into how this area of Island County grows.  Freeland will have to start thinking forward with a 20 year plan on how and where they will want to grow into the future.

An Aug. 28 Island County planning commission meeting marked the first time the planning department and the public were given a chance to engage in a dialogue with the planning commission.

Extensive public comments were focused on how to improve the plan while none were received that outright opposed the designation of Freeland as an NMUGA.

Additional written input was submitted before the period closed Sept. 11. In the last one-and-a-half months, the all-volunteer planning commission has been inundated with written and oral testimony.

“The planning commission agreed to a marathon session,” said Planning Director Jeff Tate. “They looked at all the issues one by one. They really powered through them.”

Residents have focused primarily on amendments to Freeland’s subarea plan, which the planning commission also agreed Tuesday to incorporate into the county’s comprehensive plan. The proposed amendments generating the most debate revolved around density on pieces of property like Freeland Hill and semantic concerns.

“They voted to use ‘should’ and ‘may’ in the plan rather than ‘shall’ and ‘must,’” Tate said.

The Washington State Growth Management Act allows counties to designate areas of the county as non-municipal urban growth areas with urban services such as sewer and storm water infrastructure while requiring greater density and commercial development.

The study came about as a result of an order from the Growth Management Hearings Board, which required the county to look at both Clinton and Freeland as candidates for the NMUGA.

The planning commission’s recommendations will be forwarded to the Board of Island County Commissioners, who should ultimately render a decision in November.

“It’s a milestone to get to this point, but this is one event in a series of events,” Tate said of Tuesday’s approved motions. “It’s a very big part, but this hasn’t set up a situation where permits can be submitted. That’s still way down the road.” via whidbeynewstimes.

A loss of eight planning staff members, many crucial to the county’s long-range planning efforts, became significant enough for a full public discussion of the issue by Whatcom County Council members Tuesday night.With a 2½-year backlog of county planning initiatives, Council members Carl Weimer and Barbara Brenner asked that a full council committee address the loss of planners and what can be done to move policies forward.

Council members decided to send Weimer and Brenner to speak with Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen’s administration about the issues and to outline what has to get done immediately and what timeline might be involved.

“The matter is really serious,” said Councilwoman Laurie Caskey-Schreiber, who said that the council was elected to help develop plans to deal with the county’s exploding growth. “If that right is not given to us, or allowed to us, we can’t represent the people that we are elected to represent.”

Eight planning department staff members have quit in the first half of 2007, including Planning and Development Services Director Hal Hart and his assistant, Dennis Rhodes. Hart now works for the city of Woodinville, and Rhodes took over as Ferndale planning and building director.

Councilman Sam Crawford balked at the idea that the county’s planning staff or the executive branch was not getting things done. “I feel like I’m in a different county than you guys,” he said.

Crawford said the council has no right to direct planning staff when Brenner suggested that perhaps some department staff should be moved under the council to develop policies in a timely manner.

The loss of planning staff concerns Whatcom County Planning Commission Chairman Ken Mann as well.

“My opinion as to why (planning staff members are) leaving is that the administration has not made planning and the planning department a priority in the last few years,” Mann said. “Losing all of these senior planners — it’s an incredible brain drain and we are going to pay for it as a county.”

A call to Kremen seeking comment about the issue early Tuesday morning was returned by his deputy, Dewey Desler.

Desler said that the planning department has seen immense growth, with an increase in staff of about 50 percent in the last three years, and its budget has nearly doubled since 2004.

“There is no other department, with the exception of the jail, that has really experienced that kind of growth and capacity,” Desler said.

Mann, however, said that the issue isn’t how many people are being hired in the department, but where they’re being told to focus. Many of the hires are focusing on the permitting department rather than long-range planning, which is crucial to the growth of the county, he said.

“The administration may not realize that,” Mann said. “(They) may just consider it one big room full of people that are interchangeable parts. But that’s just not true.” 

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA - Bellingham Real Estate

 The Liberty Park new homes community of 52 brand new homes is now underway in Ferndale, Washington.  Custom Home builder Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction has nine two story homes available to the public, ranging from 1,871 to 2,891 sqft homes.  They also are offering seven one story homes ranging from 1,607 to 2,060 sqft homes.

RH Const. has been building fine homes in Whatcom County since 1979.  They just completed the very successful Myers Estates project in Ferndale WA, consisting of 42 brand new homes. Prior to these two ferndale projects, they also built most of the homes in nearby Bellaire Estates community, home to 62 upscale homes.  They like to say, “we build communities one home at a time”.

They currently have one home already Sold and completed, two more pending and set to close in early January 2007 and have six homes under construction and listed for sale.  They have a complete web site full of information about Liberty Park Lots, Liberty Park Floor Plans, North Bellingham information, builder info, and lots of home photos.

Their 2007 Schedule of open house’s was just anounced at Liberty Park Open House Schedule.  They also recently released their welcome to Liberty Park announcement at Liberty Park News blog site. 

Brought to you by Jerry Campbell, Realtor - The Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA 98225

 Whatcom County & The City of Bellingham are proposing to form a steering committee and hire a consultant to find the demand for housing for low-income citizens.  Under the proposal the county and city would each contribute $75,000 to fund the cost of the consultant.  The County Council already deposited their amount last Tuesday and on Monday the City Council will decide on the proposal.

City Councilwoman Joan Beardsley, who is leading the city effort, says “I have great hope that this will be the next step in countycity cooperation in solving a serious problem that has ramifications for our futures,” Beardsle.

The city and county councils have already passed resolutions calling for a plan to address the lack of cheap housing here.

Beardsley said the consultant would work for a committee of local builders, government officials, advocates and interested citizens. That committee of about a dozen people should have its final recommendations ready for public hearings by December 2007. Beardsley wants the city and county to have rules in place before four areas awaiting possible annexation get added to the city.

The consultant will look especially at using rules requiring and incentives persuading developers to build affordable housing in new developments.

“It really needs to be a combination of things that allows builders and developers to stay in business,” says Paul Schissler, the executive director of the Kulshan Community Land Trust — a nonprofit organization that helps low-income people get into homes.

He suggested finding money to offset the costs of government fees for developers, with the stipulation they reduce the home cost.  Via Herald

The affordable housing issue isn’t unique to just Whatcom County, it’s a nation wide problem, especially here in the Northwest where home prices have jumped.  I believe that the real issue comes down to politics.  Over the last 15 years I’ve watched our local situation develop into this very issue.  

On one side of the issue developers are dealing with tough land restriction issues, which in the end costs them more money to build communities.  This added cost is passed on to builders when they buy subdivisions or individual building lots. Then the builders are unindated with escalating permit costs, fees, increasing sub contractor costs, high insurance rates, increased taxes and selling costs on the home.  The Consumer then purchases higher priced homes.

On the other side there are special interest groups that want to restrict housing where ever they can and whenever a project is proposed; their answer almost always seems to be fight it.  Having the “Not in my Backyard” mentality will never solve the issue of affordable housing. This type of stance will only hurt affordable housing.

Back in the early 90’s the state mandated that all the counties and cities within the state abide by the Growth Management Act (GMA).  In principle it’s a great idea, in that we should try to grow within our cities to prevent to much urban sprawl.  In our county it’s essential that we preserve our valuable farm land and sensitive creeks, rivers, lakes and forest.  This is part of what makes Whatcom County so popular.

So what happens then, the cities work on plans within thier city limits and consider their 20 year GMA areas as well.  The county tries to prevent Urban Sprawl in the sensitive areas.  The special interest groups that fight almost every proposed development and in the end the developer looks like the bad guy…it’s a never ending cycle.  The only way to solve this problem is to realize once and for all that concessions and compromise need to be made in order to address affordable housing needs.  The County and City need to be brave, make tough decisions by easing back on some of these restrictions and fight the temptation to apease the “Not in my Back Yard” mantra.

I was born and raised in Western Washington and have lived here my entire life.  I really appreciate the natural beauty of our home life here and like most, want to preserve what we have for the future.  But the common sense side of me says…there’s got to be a give and take.  That’s the beauty of having steering committee’s, neighborhood planning groups and discussion among your neighbors.  After many levels of discussion and thought, we need to deal with tough decisions and hope our elected officials decide what’s best to finally resolve issues like Affordable Housing. In the end this area wouldn’t be what it is if there wasn’t diversity through those who call Whatcom County home and those who hope to as well. 

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA - Bellingham WA Homes For Sale

 Lynden, WA is currently the fastest growing town in Whatcom County, over the last 6 years.  1,730 people moved to Lynden during that span, a 19.2% increase, bringing the population to 10,750.  Blaine, WA came in second at 18.8% increase.

All told, Whatcom County added 17,474 people in the last six years, for a rate of 10.5 percent, making the county eighth in Washington in terms of population growth. Most of those people — 13,011 — moved here from somewhere else.

Lynden has worked hard to put new people inside city limits or in urban growth areas, and it has been welcoming to the national businesses that have been attracted to the increasing population, Mayor Jack Louws said.

“With the increase in population and the businesses that have been developed to support that, I think Lynden’s economy is very healthy,” he said. “I think that we’re still a very desirable place for people to locate in. And it’s my goal that we continue to have the welcome mat
out.”

Nearly 7,000 people moved into rural areas in the last six years, for a 9.2 percent increase. That’s more than twice the rate in rural areas elsewhere in the state.  via the Bellingham Herald.

Once you’ve visited Lynden, WA it’s very easy to see why this town is so desireable.   Driving thru town, your drawn in by it’s treed lined streets, well maintained yards and homes, championship golf course at homestead and the Dutch heritage that thrives strong in this great community.

Brought to you by Jerry Campbell, Realtor - The Muljat Group - Lynden WA real estate