Bellingham will have a new public beach area next spring. Here’s what the city is planning
By early next year, there will be a new beach at one of Bellingham’s most popular parks, as part of an effort to stop damage from fierce winter storms that are increasingly fueled by climate change.
Construction is set to start within the next couple of months and will be complete by February, Parks and Recreation Department Director Nicole Oliver told The Bellingham Herald.
Oliver said that the new beach will go from the Woods Coffee location southward to the shoreline beneath a trestle on the South Bay Trail, in an area that’s been fenced off because of erosion from the storms of November 2021 that caused more than $200 million in flooding and other damages across Whatcom County.
Cost of the effort is $835,355, after the City Council unanimously approved a contract Monday night. Part of the project will be paid with a $500,000 state grant, and the rest from Greenways levy funds, Oliver said.
Parks project engineer Gina Austin told the City Council in a committee meeting Monday that the new beach will resemble the beach that the city built in 2013 north of the Woods Coffee location.
Large rocks will be removed from the waterfront and a sloping gravel beach will be built, making the trail seem like it’s a closer to the water and allowing easier access for kayakers.
“If you’re at the park, you’ll see it looks like this, you’re up high and you’re on the trail and you don’t feel like you’re at the beach. And we’re going to create that beach area,” Austin said.
Austin said the beach built in 2013 “is resilient to climate change, sea level rise and can handle lots of storms. It dissipates energy and that’s what this new beach will do.”
It will return the shoreline to a more natural condition and add native plants on shore and in the shallows.
“Surf smelt will benefit from the project and have been documented to spawn at the north beach in the park in a 2003 survey,” Austin said in a memo to the council
Boulevard Park is one of the city’s most popular destinations, with a coffee shop, playground, picnic area and access to the South Bay Trail that links downtown Bellingham with the Fairhaven shopping district and the Interurban Trail south of the city.
Tracking data shows that Boulevard Park averages 35,000 visitors a month or about 420,000 people annually, Oliver said.
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 8:26 AM.
