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closeThe city of Bellingham closes purchase this month on nearly 34 acres on Samish Hill, near Lake Padden, as part of the Greenways program.
The city is buying the land for $1.4 million, using taxes voters approved for Greenways purchases during the third Greenways levy in 2006.
We applaud the city for making this purchase now. Unlike some of the other areas targeted for potential purchase, the area on Samish Hill is in an underdeveloped part of the city. Buying before the area develops is smart use of these public funds.
Eventually, there will be more residences on Samish Hill as the city grows within its borders. That is not only natural, but needed, as the city attempts to handle increasing population without sprawling outside its current footprint.
But waiting to buy properties until after development occurs is poor financial management.
One need only look to the struggles the city has had trying to create parks in the Cordata area, where there are thousands of new residences and no parks, to see how difficult it can be to try and play catch up with growth.
We have heard some criticism in the community about this purchase from those concerned that even more parkland set aside in the southern part of the city means a longer wait for needed parks in the north.
We don't believe that will be an issue in this case. This is not a Greenways bank-breaking purchase like the one championed by those who would have the city buy the 84-acre Fairhaven Highlands development, which could cost the city more than $10 million.
Meanwhile, the land being purchased here could serve a valuable long-term need.
The city, through Greenways, is slowly but surely purchasing land between Lake Padden and Lakeway Drive as part of a project, started in the 1990s, to connect Lake Padden Park and the Whatcom Creek Greenway and protect the forested habitat and view along the Samish Hill ridgeline. The city previously purchased more than 114 acres toward that purpose.
In that sense, this purchase should have been expected and should have no bearing on the important effort to create park space in Cordata.
Meanwhile, parks department officials say this piece of property has a ravine, a forested ridgeline and wetlands.
When explaining the property to a Bellingham Herald reporter, city Greenway Program coordinator Tim Wahl compared it to a trip to the Olympic Peninsula. That makes the land well worth preserving, and eventually a valuable part of the link between Lake Padden and Whatcom Creek.
But what should be as important to citizens is that the Greenway program continues to spend valuable tax dollars in the most fiscally responsible way.
There are only a couple of examples, in the 18 years since voters first approved the extra Greenway tax in 1990, where the way the money was spent sparked controversy.
On the contrary, some of the park and trail projects paid for with Greenway tax dollars are among the most popular parts of the city - the beloved Taylor Avenue Dock and Boardwalk, for example.
That's a good track record, and one we encourage the city to continue to fulfill.
Taxpayers have shown their faith in the city's ability to piece together parks and trails that will leave a legacy of quality of life for the city's future generations. It's nice to see that faith repaid.
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