After seven-hour hearing, here’s when there may be a Lighthouse Mission expansion decision
July 20 update: Blake Lyon, director of the Planning and Community Development Department, told The Bellingham Herald in an email that a decision was due last week and it is now expected at any time.
in order to give full and thoughtful consideration to the issue given the amount of information, the complexity of that information and the range of public testimony that was received.
A decision is likely to take several weeks on the Lighthouse Mission Ministries proposal to replace its Old Town homeless shelter with a new and larger building that would double it’s capacity to 400 people.
Bellingham Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice said to expect her ruling on July 14 or possibly somewhat earlier on the Lighthouse Mission’s request for a conditional use permit for a five-story building to replace its shelter at 910 W. Holly St. on the edge of the Old Town district.
More than two dozen Bellingham residents spoke at an online hearing that lasted more than seven hours over two days, and many of them opposed the mission’s expansion plans.
Several Lettered Streets neighbors cited a steady rise in crime, litter, vandalism, abandoned cars, trespassing, noise, public intoxication and other nuisances from the mission’s Drop-In Center when it was operating across the street several years ago.
Opponents also cited the proposed steep increase in capacity at the new shelter, which would house about 300 people on a regular basis and up to 400 people during weather-related emergencies such as a heat wave, snowstorm or smoke-filled air from wildfires.
Others criticized a lack of staff proposed for the new project, especially during the overnight hours when Lighthouse Mission officials said three people would be on duty.
Bri O’Hare, the Lettered Streets representative on the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission, told The Bellingham Herald that she felt that Bellingham and Lighthouse Mission officials hadn’t adequately addressed the neighbors’ concerns, and she hoped that the hearing examiner would do that in her ruling.
“I think time will tell based on the decision taking into account our feedback,” O’Hare said Tuesday, June 14.
“The staff, to my knowledge, recommended the project going forward without any changes,” she said.
Conducted like a trial
RIce said her ruling would be based on applicable laws and Bellingham municipal code and she encouraged opponents to focus their testimony on those issues.
“I understand that this is a project that brings up strong feelings both in favor and against,” Rice said at the close of the hearing Monday, June 13.
A hearing examiner is a quasi-judicial officer who decides land-use issues, disputes and development proposals.
Hearings on June 8 and June 13 were conducted like a trial, and those who spoke were sworn to tell the truth.
During the hearing, the Lighthouse Mission and AVT Consulting presented information about their project, followed by members of the city’s Planning and Community Development Department who discussed the need for homeless services and described permitted uses under zoning codes in the Old Town urban village.
Public comment followed, along with a series of questions from Rice, and then the applicants and city staff provided rebuttal to public comment and answers to Rice’s questions.
“Any appeal of the hearing examiner’s decision would be to Superior Court, and neither City Council nor (Mayor Seth Fleetwood) have decision-making authority on this matter,” City Attorney Alan Marriner told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
Proposed new shelter
According to architectural plans submitted to the city, the new building will house a 200-bed “low-barrier” shelter to replace the current Base Camp in downtown Bellingham and also include 100 beds of “micro shelters,” 100 beds for weather-related emergency shelter, offices and ground-floor retail space along West Holly Street.
Lighthouse Mission’s plan would expand available shelter capacity citywide and provide “micro-shelter” space for families, behavioral health patients, medically fragile and elderly patients, and “flex dorms” for people with jobs who can’t afford a place to live.
It also would have 100 beds available in emergencies such as extremely hot or cold weather — solving the city’s recurring problem of quickly finding a temporary shelter when the weather forecast predicts a heat wave or a snowstorm.
There also would be a day room for residents to congregate without having to go outside, and several covered balconies where residents could smoke, exercise their pets or simply chat.
A long hallway will accommodate people as they check in, allowing clients to wait indoors and away from “predators” who encourage drug use and other illegal activity, said Hans Erchinger-Davis, president and CEO of Lighthouse Mission.
“It’s been a long journey trying to site this particular program,” he said.
“We’ve been looking for a new location for years, and anytime a location is floated as an idea, tons of letters start coming in saying please, we want the services, they’re absolutely necessary, but we don’t want them near us,” Erchinger-Davis said during a more than four-hour online hearing June 8.
That hearing was extended until June 13 because so many people wanted to offer testimony.
“There’s a lot of NIMBY, not in my backyard, and every place we’ve ever tried to move to has had strong opposition to that,” he said. “All these different specialty shelters will have the same fight anywhere we got, versus land that we already own.”
Lighthouse Mission has been in its current location since 1977, and has been in Old Town for 99 years, Erchinger-Davis said.
Kurt Nabbefeld, development services manager for the city of Bellingham, said the city supports the Lighthouse Mission’s proposal.
“We’ve crafted these new regulations based on past experience with the Drop-In Center,” Nabbefeld said. “We really believe the facility will be able to work effectively for those experiencing homelessness and also for the community at large.”
This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
