This historic building might be the site of a new Whatcom civic campus
Whatcom County is advancing plans to replace its aging Northwest Annex, which houses the Planning and Development Services Department, with at least one new building and possibly an entire campus of offices in the future.
The county doesn’t have money to build the project, but will seek grants and federal funding to pay for it, and officials want it “shovel-ready” if money becomes available, Rob Ney, the county’s project and operations manager, told The Bellingham Herald.
County Council members voted unanimously at their Feb. 9 meeting to refine a proposal from RMC Architects presented at a committee meeting earlier that day.
That proposal gave the council its first look at the design of the building that would replace the Northwest Annex at 5280 Northwest Drive, just south of Smith Road.
“It’s to allow for long-term expansion over the next several decades for county facilities and would enable us to consolidate some of our fragmented operations into other buildings up there if we wanted to,” Councilman Rud Browne said at the Feb. 9 meeting.
Plans call for a two-story building to house Planning and Development and at least part of the Health Department and some Public Works Department employees, plus a paved parking lot that could be shared by the nearby Phillips 66 Soccer Park, which now has a dirt lot for cars, according to a report from RMC Architects.
Over time, it could expand to a campus of three or more buildings as needs arise.
“Our plans right now are only to build building one,” Ney said.
“The other buildings are future buildings but part of our marching orders for RMC was to build a campus,” Ney said during the meeting. “There’s going to be additional needs and we want to plan for those needs and have excess capacity.”
Future growth
Deputy County Executive Tyler Schroeder said planning for growth is imperative.
“(This project) provides space for our needs that we have right now for Public Works and (Planning and Development) replacement, but it allows for some future growth moving forward,” he told the council.
County officials have been planning for several years to replace the current building on land that was bought from the state in 1889.
A hospital was built in 1926-27 and the building was later turned into a nursing home.
Accurate historical information is scarce, but records show renovations began in 1990 to accommodate county offices.
“We make do, (but) we don’t have any room to expand, ” said Mark Personius, director of planning and development.
Personius told The Bellingham Herald that his employees often collaborate with staff members in the Public Works and Environmental Health departments and would like to have them closer.
“Having them all in the same building would be beneficial,” Personius said.
Whatcom County employees are scattered in several buildings across downtown Bellingham, and at sites around the county, from east of Ferndale to west of Nugents Corner.
Federal funding?
In its current design, the proposed new building could provide offices for 200 to 300 people, RMC’s Brad Cornwell told the council.
It was designed to LEED 4.1 standards for energy efficiency and waste reduction, Cornwell said.
Maximum cost is about $22.8 million, Ney said.
“That’s the hope, that the federal government puts out some stimulus projects — that’s what we’ve been trying to gear ourselves up for,” he said.
“This is our initial step to replace some of our aging infrastructure,” Ney told council members. “If we find some funding source mechanism we can present and have enough material to say, ‘Yes we’re ready,’ we would have enough to go for some grants or federal funding.”
Next steps
Having three buildings in a campus setting would give the site a “civic presence,” Cornwell told the council
He said a roundabout is possible for the Northwest-Smith intersection.
A second building could house the Sheriff’s office, he said.
RMC’s design shows secure parking for employees, but also shared public parking.
“We feel like this could be a win-win,” Cornwell told the council. “Modify your lease where that lot serves for overflow needs, should the county need it on a big public access day out here but it also would serve the other way so that it supports the other uses on the site for youth sports activities.”
A stormwater retention pond at the site could be part of an environmental education program, Ney said.
“It’s not going to be something with a chain-link fence with grates in it, that’s not our intent,” he told the council.
Councilman Tyler Byrd said he hoped a coffee shop or cafe would be included in the design, because the site is is on a rural corner.
“It would be nice to have a walking track around the whole thing so if someone wants to take a lunch break and not have to walk through the mud. It could be a nice little area for the community,” he said at the meeting.
But despite its remote location, the site offers access to a majority of county residents who use Planning and Development Services.
“We are trying to get these uses out to the public in the area in which they come from and most of our users are north of the (Bellingham) city limits. So this actually meets that criteria,” Ney told the council.
On Feb. 9, the council voted to spend about $30,000 to look closer at RMC’s design, possible tenants and engineering concerns.
“I’d rather have all our ducks in a row so we’re first in line — both for (possible grant) money and for the construction,” Browne said.
