Bellingham seeks to limit recent trend of ‘underbuilding’ in areas set aside for multi-family housing
Bellingham will ban most single-family homes in areas zoned for duplexes, townhouses and other multi-family units, under a temporary emergency ordinance that passed unanimously last week.
A review of recent development patterns showed an increase in applications for homes in areas where multi-family units are allowed, said Rick Sepler, director of the city’s Planning and Community Development Department.
“These are choices we have to make in order to provide some density in our community,” Councilmember Pinky Vargas said at the meeting Monday, March 9.
Because the emergency ordinance was added to the budget after the agenda was announced, the measure requires a public hearing within 60 days.
“Many of those multi-family districts are specifically targeted to provide housing of a type at a higher density that tends to be more affordable,” Sepler told the council. “We need certainly to provide a broad range of housing choices, but those are specifically the ones in which we find a gap — it’s often referred to as the ‘missing middle’ in terms of housing.”
Since November 2016, a total of 164 single-family permits have been issued in residential multi zones, senior planner Lisa Pool said in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
Almost all were in the King Mountain and Cordata neighborhoods, Pool said.
Some exceptions to the emergency ban would be allowed and approved applications can continue, Sepler said.
“The only situation this applies to is if you’re underbuilding by putting single-family in a multi-family area, right? Kind of the basic contract of what the zoning is, I think we’re trying reinforce that rather than changing the rules.”
