Lynden wants to allow more urban growth along Double Ditch Road

JARED PABEN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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Lynden has asked county leaders to allow future urban growth on more than 300 acres outside city limits along Double Ditch Road, a request that could prove controversial because the land includes good farmland.

The proposal was made to Whatcom County leaders, who are under a state board order to review and revise all urban growth areas by December. The County Council and executive get the final decision on which lands to make available for urban growth, but they legally must consult with cities before making the decision.

Lynden is the only city that's expected to request an increase in urban growth area, although most cities haven't formally submitted their proposals to Whatcom County yet. Bellingham recently told county leaders it wants to keep its unincorporated urban growth areas as they are.

ATTEND THE MEETING
What: The Growth Management Coordinating Council, an advisory group of elected leaders from throughout Whatcom County, will meet to discuss population growth requests from the cities.
When: 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 3.
Where: Cornwall Church Commons, 4518 Northwest Road.
For more information: go to Whatcomcounty.us and click on "Whatcom 2031." County staff has yet to receive all the cities' proposals for urban growth area revisions. When they do, they will post them to the Web site on Friday, June 12, at the latest.

Lynden has worked hard to protect agricultural land, according to a proposal approved unanimously by its City Council. Among other things, officials have worked to put more homes on less land, and city policies for annexing urban growth area into city limits are among the strictest in the state. Whatcom County land in agricultural use has declined by 35 percent since 1950, but Lynden's growth is responsible for only 3 percent of that, they stated.

The city of 11,600 people is planning for another 7,400 residents over the next two decades, and if urban land isn't made available for growth, then it'll just drive growth into rural lands, Lynden officials said.

"Overly restricting the land supply and denying a variety of housing types and density within the urban growth areas will drive growth to the rural lands," according to the city's proposal. "It isn't an unintended consequence that the County can ignore as they work to preserve the agricultural resources within Whatcom County."

Other cities will soon tell Whatcom County where they want to add or remove urban area. They've already said what percentage of new growth they want to accommodate.

NEW GROWTH REQUESTS

According to a memo written by county Planning Director David Stalheim, cities have requested the following percentages of new growth over the next 20 years:

Bellingham: 38.4 percent of new growth; 46.7 percent of county population currently lives there.

Birch Bay (unincorporated growth area): 7 percent of growth; 2.8 percent of county population lives there.

Blaine: 6 percent growth (city leaders requested more but a growth council rejected that); 3 percent of county population.

Columbia Valley (unincorporated growth area): 1.7 percent of growth; 2.1 percent of county population.

Everson: 3.1 percent of growth; 1.3 percent of county population.

Ferndale: 14 percent of growth; 6.3 percent of county population.

Lynden: 12 percent of growth; 6.1 percent of county population.

Nooksack: 1.9 percent of growth; 0.6 percent of county population.

Sumas: 1.3 percent of growth; 0.7 percent of county population.

Unincorporated rural areas: 14.6 percent of growth; 30.5 percent of county population.

The growth percentages are based on the county getting about 62,000 new residents, for a total population of 252,971 people in the year 2031. Some people dispute that number, and the County Council has yet to approve that number or the percentages to the cities.