Whatcom County to purchase Bellingham office building for planning department
Whatcom County will buy an office building in Bellingham for $8 million and move its Planning and Development Services Department from its aging Northwest Annex headquarters east of Ferndale, the County Council decided in a 5-2 vote Tuesday night.
Western Washington University is selling the two-story brick building but will rent offices there for two years, according to terms of the deal approved Monday. The 30,000-square-foot office building houses the WWU Testing and Passport Center on 1.35 acres at 333 32nd St., just west of the Sehome Village shopping center in the Happy Valley neighborhood.
Council members Mark Stremler and Ben Elenbaas voted against the plan. Elenbaas criticized the new office’s location in Bellingham.
“Hold my beer. Now you’re going to drive two hours to be denied your permit? It’s south Bellingham. It’s nowhere near the people and projects it’s serving,” Elenbaas said during committee discussion on the proposal Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday’s action will allow the Planning and Development, Permitting and some Public Works services to move from the Northwest Annex, a building that’s more than 100 years old, at 5280 Northwest Drive, at the corner of Smith Road. That building need a new roof and its heating and cooling system is fail, Deputy Executive Kayla Schott-Bressler told the council on Tuesday afternoon.
Planning and Development services Director Mark Personius told the council that only about a dozen members of the public visit the Northwest Annex offices in a given week. A website allows online filing for permits and other business, he said.
County officials had been planning for about a decade to build an office campus at Smith and Northwest, with space for Planning and Development and the Sheriff’s Office, and tear down the current office. But costs for that project soared to more than $60 million, and plans were put on hold last summer.
Some $2.7 million in funds that had been reserved for the Smith/Northwest campus will be used to buy the office building from WWU, according to other action taken Tuesday.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 8:31 AM.
