‘A lot of concern’: Bellingham group balks at plan to remove 327 trees for new townhomes
A proposed 68-unit townhome development in Bellingham that would add much-needed housing to the north end of the city is drawing criticism for the developer’s plan to remove 327 trees from the site in order to accommodate the project.
The StreamRE Townhomes, developed by Seattle-based Stream Real Estate, would be built as an infill project on land next to the Bellingham Golf and Country Club. The project would utilize what was once the east edge of the golf course property along Meridian Street, which is currently heavily forested and home to hundreds of old-growth conifer trees.
A group dedicated to preserving trees in Whatcom County is worried about the large number of trees that will be removed to make way for the project.
“The trees on this site are very mature, native conifers. They’re roughly about 70 to over 100 years old based on their height and girth,” said Michael Feerer, founder of Whatcom Million Trees Project.
Feerer says the trees on the site are some of the tallest in the Birchwood neighborhood.
“We’re very selective in terms of which development projects we take a closer look at. This is one of the ones that met our criteria as something that brought a lot of concern,” Feerer said.
Although hundreds of trees would need to be removed to make room for the development, the proposal would still preserve 73 existing trees on site. The developer plans to mitigate the tree removal by planting 474 replacement trees both on-site and on the golf course property.
“That was our preferred location because we want the mitigation to occur as close to the impact as possible,” said Ali Taysi of Bellingham-based AVT Consulting, the permit consultant company for the project.
If all of the mitigation cannot be done on-site and on the golf course, trees may be planted in adjacent neighborhoods or nearby parks, according to Taysi.
The project design
The plan includes two separate styles of townhomes, including three-story and two-story units. Each townhome would be individually sold. More than 130 garage parking stalls and 21 surface guest parking stalls are also planned for the site but there will be no available street parking along Meridian.
The project’s design does its best to balance the addition of housing units with tree preservation and protection, Taysi told The Bellingham Herald.
“You’ll see all of the sidewalks are circuitous — they’re not just straight lines. And the reason for that is because they were designed, to the degree possible, to work around trees,” Taysi said.
Stream Real Estate has a heavy sustainability focus as a development company — planting more than 2,600 trees in Western Washington since 2012.
Still, the townhome development site is fully forested. So it’s impossible to avoid all the trees, said Taysi. But over time, the hope is that the newly planted trees will fully replace the canopy that is lost due to development, she said.
“There’s just not a lot of wiggle room (on the site.) Taking that into account, we did what we could to identify and quantify all the trees, work with professional consultants to look at the best mitigation options, work with the city on that, and look at trying to locate mitigation as close to the site as possible.”
Petition to limit the tree removal
Whatcom Million Trees Project’s Feerer believes not enough is being done to mitigate the impacts of the proposed development. The group is devoted to planting and protecting more than one million trees in Whatcom County and started a petition to stop some of the tree removals by proposing modifications to the project’s plan.
“We think there’s a right balance to be done and that’s why our pushback on this is not to stop the development in its entirety,” Feerer said.
Feerer is a former architect and urban planner himself. He said the Whatcom Million Trees Project is entirely supportive of building affordable infill housing locally. But this particular project brought a lot of concern to the group.
The Whatcom Million Trees Project petition says mature trees like the ones on the site are “increasingly essential in our new climate era,” citing the trees’ ability to promote community resilience to things like floods and extreme heat as well as provide clean air, noise buffering and quality of life benefits.
The group is proposing changes to the development plan to limit the number of trees that need to be removed on the site. They are:
▪ Eliminate eight of the larger proposed townhomes or redesign the plan to prioritize higher-density buildings and preserve more of the site.
▪ Change the placement of the proposed buildings to preserve more clusters of existing trees.
▪ Trees selected for preservation should not be within five feet of new infrastructure or be rated in “poor” condition as these factors could lead to a lower chance for survival, according to Feerer.
▪ Replacement trees planted for mitigation should be placed in perpetually protected land to ensure their longevity.
Feerer said there needs to be a fresh look at the proposed site plan in order to tackle these concerns.
“The question is, is the overall (design) the right one for the site? And is there a way that Stream can still make a profit here but do it in a more reasonable way for our community?” Feerer told The Herald.
Feerer said the city of Bellingham also needs more progressive tree protection and tree retention ordinances to preserve more trees in the long term.
“Bellingham hasn’t done that yet, so now’s the time,” Feerer said.
The city of Bellingham has a one-to-one replacement requirement for the removal of trees between six inches and 30 inches in diameter. For all trees that are greater than 30 inches, the city requires a three-to-one replacement.
The city of Bellingham is working to develop an Urban Forestry Management Plan, which the Whatcom Million Trees Project supports. The purpose of the urban forestry plan is to create a strategic guideline that helps maintain a healthy and desirable urban forest through well-coordinated, consistent, efficient, and sustainable long-term urban forest management, according to the city of Bellingham’s website.
As of June 29, the Whatcom Million Trees Project had gathered 602 signatures on the petition. The group plans to present the signatures and comments gathered to city officials at an upcoming hearing about the development to urge the city to require modifications.
Barring any major delays or changes, the StreamRE Townhome development is expected to begin undergoing construction in the spring or summer of 2024 with completion anticipated for 2026.
This story was originally published July 1, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
