Dear Friends and Neighbors:

Your neighbors need your help as soon as possible!!

Responsible Development! (http://www.OneHundredAcreWood.org/) is a citizens group formed to oppose the Fairhaven Highlands / Chuckanut Ridge development of 739 housing units, consisting substantially of multi-family units housed in 10-story buildings. This development will be built on the One Hundred Acre Wood property located on Chuckanut Drive and, if approved, will be the single largest residential development in Bellingham’s history.

At this time, the Bellingham Planning Department is working on the 2005 Update of the outdated 1995 Bellingham Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan). The Comp Plan is the primary document used to state the community’s goals and policies that direct the physical development of the city and future decision-making. Our city planners and council members are currently using a plan that is OBSOLETE to make important decisions for OUR future. We simply CANNOT allow them to make a decision on any project of this magnitude based on an outdated plan that does not reflect our community’s current goals and policies.

The leadership of Responsible Development! has been working closely with the City Council and the Planning Commission to provide neighborhood input on the Comp Plan, as well as this project, and has requested that the Council postpone approval of new significant developments (particularly those with tremendous public opposition) until the 2005 Update has been completed. We believe that this resolution can be brought up at the City Council meeting on Monday, April 25.

Our goal is simple: We must communicate and document our opinion to the City Council IN LARGE NUMBERS! Remember, the Comprehensive Plan has citywide implications and affects ALL NEIGHBORHOODS in Bellingham!

If you agree that a time-out should be taken to complete the 2005 Update before we allow the city to approve new, outsized developments anywhere in the city, then we have made it easy for you to voice your opinion in 3 simple steps:

At YOUR EARLIEST POSSIBLE CONVENIENCE, simply do the following:

1. Copy the sample email message “Time out for new Development” below and email it to: citycouncil@cob.org. Please add your name, address and tel # for each person in your household to the bottom of that email and include the subject phrase “Time Out for New Development”. (Alternatively, and preferably, please send your own personalized email to: citycouncil@cob.org )

2. Copy this article you are currently reading and email it to ALL of your friends, neighbors and co-workers who live in the city and whom you believe might feel the same way. Use the subject line “YOUR NEIGHBORS NEED YOUR HELP.” [We suggest that you send group email by placing your friends’ email addresses on the Bcc: (blind copy) line, if you can, to preserve privacy.]

That’s it. Thanks for your help and Congratulations on becoming an active member of your community!!

P.S. Please accept our apologies in advance in the event you receive duplicate, or multiple, emails requesting your help. An unfortunate by product of attempting to notify all citizens of Bellingham of this serious, potentially disastrous, situation is that you may be contacted more than once. If you are, we sincerely apologize and request that you simply delete these extra emails.

Time Out for New Development

Dear City Council Members:

I understand that a resolution may be introduced at the City Council meeting on Monday, April 25, 2005 that would put on hold approval of applications for large developments (especially those with tremendous public opposition) until after the completion of the 2005 Update of the outdated 1995 Comprehensive Plan.   

One of the primary reasons for this resolution is to prevent potentially disastrous developments that are in direct conflict with the CURRENT goals and policies of the community. It makes absolutely no sense to charge forward with a development decision that is likely to have a PERMANENT adverse effect on our city and its neighborhoods when our planners and decision makers are working with a 10-year old plan that is seriously obsolete. Since the update is already past due, there exists a responsibility on the part of our city’s leaders to ensure that the community’s current goals and policies that direct the physical development of the city and future decision-making are adopted before these developments can move forward.

I am writing to let you know that I wholeheartedly support this resolution.  I believe I am in good company, as support for this resolution among my friends and neighbors appears to be virtually unanimous.

I am certain that all of the other reasons for taking this time-out have already been addressed with each of you by others who feel as I do, so I won't elaborate on these.  Instead, I would like to offer my encouragement to you to take your fiduciary responsibility seriously and lead this group of citizens, who believe fervently that an updated Comp Plan is essential PRIOR to allowing potentially damaging development, rather than AFTER.

I would be happy to share my views with each of you if you believe that would be helpful, and I would look forward to hearing from you in that regard.

Thanks for taking the leadership on this issue.

Sincerely,

Name

Address

Tel #