Bellingham City Planning Commission

**Residential Zoning Overhaul — Framing and Strategy** Staff presented the overarching framework for a complete revision of Bellingham's residential zoning code, describing the work as the implementation phase of the recently adopted Bellingham Plan (December 2025 comprehensive plan update). The presentation covered several interconnected policy dimensions: *Historical context:* Chris Behee walked commissioners through Bellingham's zoning history, beginning with the city's first zoning ordinance in the 1940s and tracing through 25 neighborhood plans developed in the 1980s, the community-wide Visions for Bellingham process in the 1990s, and successive comprehensive plan updates in 1995, 2006, 2016, and 2025. A pivotal moment was the early 2000s Community Forum on Growth — a series of sessions that packed Bellingham High School's auditorium (which seats over a thousand people) — that staff described as a "watershed moment" for local land use policy. Those conversations eventually led to the Bellingham Planning Academy and the 2009 infill toolkit, which initially applied only in residential multi and urban village zones before being expanded to residential single zones in 2018. *State mandates driving change:* Staff identified four state bills as the primary drivers of current reform work: HB 1110 (middle housing), HB 1337 (ADUs), HB 1998 (co-living), and HB 1293 (design review and permit streamlining). These were addressed in a November–December 2025 legislative push alongside the Bellingham Plan, through a combination of permanent and interim measures. The December 2025 interim middle housing ordinance, staff noted, aligned the city with HB 1110 by allowing up to four homes per lot citywide, or six homes per lot in proximity to transit or with an affordability component. *Four policy pillars:* Staff described the new residential zoning framework as responding to four core goals drawn from the Bellingham Plan: (1) Housing for All — meeting HB 1220 requirements by planning for housing across all income segments; (2) Compact Development — limiting outward boundary expansion to meet climate action goals, reduce vehicle trips, and locate housing closer to …

**Miles Silverman (public commenter, Cordana neighborhood):** Silverman called in via Zoom to advocate for ensuring the new residential zoning code accommodates single-stair and scissor-stair small apartment buildings. He argued that state building code changes underway would make these building types more feasible than they have been historically, and that the new low-, middle-, and high-density residential zones should all be designed to take advantage of this opportunity. His arguments in favor included: better livability (more light and air, no double-loaded corridor, easier to build family-sized apartments); better neighborhood fit due to human-scale massing; lower barriers to construction (single-lot projects, easier financing, less re…

**Miles Silverman, on single-stair apartment buildings:** "Small apartment buildings can be a great tool to help solve this housing shortage while improving our neighborhoods." **Miles Silverman, on density potential:** "With a single stair four-story building with three units per floor, you could easily be doing basically a 12-plex on a lot where you used to only be able to put one house." **Miles Silverman, on financing benefits:** "Because they're smaller, that also makes them easier to f…

Before this meeting: The Planning Commission had received briefings on specific interim and permanent measures passed in late 2025 (middle housing ordinance, ADU rules, co-living, parking reform). The broader strategy for new residential zoning had not yet been presented to the Commission in a comprehensive, conceptual framing. After this meeting: - The Commission has now received a formal high-level orientation to the strategic and historical framework for the residential zoning overhaul - Staff has publicly characterized the goal as reducing hundreds of residential sub-areas to approximately four citywide zone types - The reason for not re-adopting the 25 neighborhood plans under the December 202…

--- ### Meeting Overview The Bellingham Planning Commission held a work session on May 21, 2026, focused on framing concepts for the city's new residential zoning code. Planning staff led a presentation and discussion covering Bellingham's zoning history, state law mandates, the recently adopted Bellingham Plan, community feedback, and high-level strategies for reorganizing and simplifying the city's residential zone structure. No formal votes were taken; the session was designed to gather commissioner feedback to guide ongoing staff work. --- ### Key Terms and Concepts **Middle Housing:** A category of housing types that fall between a single detached house and a large apartment building. Examples include duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and small apartment buildings. Washington State legislation passed in 2023–2024 requires cities like Bellingham to allow middle housing. **Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU):** A smaller, secondary housing unit on the same lot as a primary home. This can be an attached unit, a detached backyard cottage, or a converted garage. State law (HB 1337) expanded requirements for cities to allow ADUs. **Co-living Housing:** A housing model in which residents have private bedrooms but share common spaces such as kitchens and living areas. Washington's HB 1998 addressed co-living housing allowances. **Infill Toolkit:** Bellingham's set of zoning code provisions, first adopted in 2009, that allows a wider variety of housing types and densities on existing lots within the city's already-developed areas, as an alternative to suburban sprawl. **Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan):** A long-range planning document that guides a city's decisions about land use, housing, transportation, and other development. Bellingham's most recent comprehensive plan — the Bellingham Plan — was adopted in December 2025. **Future Land Use Map:** A map included in the comprehensive plan that designates intended long-term land uses across the city. It guides how the zoning map should be updated to align with the plan's vision. **Urban Village:** A planning concept adopted in Bellingham's 2006 comprehensive plan that designates specific areas of the city as focal points for higher-density, mixed-use development, each with its own master plan. **Zoning Sub-Areas / Zoning Tables:** Bellingham currently has approximately 25 neighborhood-specific zoning sub-area tables in the Bellingham Municipal Code (BMC) under Title 20. These tables contain detailed, neighborhood-specific regulations inherited from the 1980s neighborhood plans. Staff described these as complex and difficult to administer consistently. **Single Stair / Scissor Stair Buildings:** Small apartment buildings that use a single shared staircase (rather than a double-loaded corridor hallway) to access units on multiple floors. A member of the public noted that state building code changes are making these more feasible to build and argued they should be explicitly accommodated in the new residential zoning code. **Type 6 Process:** A formal legislative land use review process in Bellingham that involves public notice, public hearings, and planning commission recommendation before a code amendment goes to the City Council for adoption. --- ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Jed Ballew | Planning Commission Chair (absent; another commissioner presided) | | Claire Swingle | Planning Commissioner; present | | Jerry Richmond | Planning Commiss…