Ruling issued on controversial Lighthouse Mission expansion in Bellingham
Lighthouse Mission Ministries can move ahead with plans to replace its Old Town homeless shelter with a new and larger building that can house up to 400 people, after a ruling issued this week.
Bellingham Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice granted the Lighthouse Mission’s request for a conditional-use permit to build a five-story building to replace its current shelter at 910 W. Holly St.
RIce imposed several conditions in her ruling, which came Wednesday, July 27, nearly two weeks after it was expected.
“The operators shall comply with the requirements of Bellingham Municipal Code 20.15A and the conditions in this permit. The city will promptly investigate alleged violations of BMC 20.15A or these conditions, and will be assessed by the city on a case-by-case basis with the expressed intent of seeking timely compliance. However, the Planning and Community Development Department director may close a portion or all of the facility no sooner than 72 hours (or immediately if there is a threat to public health and safety) after providing notice, if the operators fail to comply with the requirements of BMC 20.15A or these conditions,” Rice wrote in her ruling.
Bellingham Municipal Code 20.15A governs interim housing facilities.
A hearing examiner is quasi-judicial officer who decides land-use issues, disputes and development proposals.
It was conducted like a trial, with the Lighthouse Mission and its agent presenting their project, followed by members of the city’s Planning and Community Development Department discussing permitted uses and the need for homeless services.
That was followed by public comment, and then RIce asked questions that city staff and LIghthouse MIssion staff answered.
“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.
According to architectural plans submitted to the city, the new building will include a 200-bed “low-barrier” shelter to replace the current Base Camp in downtown Bellingham and also include 100 beds of specialized 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 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.
“It’s been a long journey trying to site this particular program,” said Hans Erchinger-Davis, president and CEO of Lighthouse Mission.
“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 4-hour online hearing June 8 that was continued to 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 go, 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.
Opponents criticized 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 worried about 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.
One of the conditions that Rice set in her ruling requires a supervisor to be on duty at all times.
This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 12:10 PM.
