Edgemoor Neighborhood Plan Update Process

1. Organization (March 2007)

Set up the Neighborhood Plan Committee. Outreach to the community for input to the outline that meets the standards of the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan and the State Growth Management Act.

2. Community Input (April-May 15, 2007)

Develop a questionnaire for all neighborhood input including stated times and dates for public comment, public meetings, and a website for getting a copy. The questionnaire was mailed to Edgemoor residents in April, 2007, with a deadline of May 15,2007.

3. Neighborhood Plan Draft Outline (May16-July15, 2007)

Assimilate the results of the questionnaire and complete a draft outline for the Plan Update.

4. Community input on the Draft Outline

Draft outline posted on the web site and a neighborhood meeting planned to “take comments for revision”.

5. Neighborhood Plan Draft

Write the Draft of the Edgemoor Neighborhood Plan.

6. Community Input on the Plan Draft

Publicize the Neighborhood Plan Committee meetings in the monthly ENA newsletter to encourage participation by Edgemoor residents.

7. Neighborhood Plan Final Draft

Submit the Final Plan to the City of Bellingham Planning Department for approval.

I suggest we accept this process for ourselves. It proposes two major work products with public input and revision for both. Please recognize that this does not include any proposals to change the zoning of the Edgemoor Neighborhood, there are no side trips proposed to add anything to the Comprehensive Plan which other neighborhoods have tried, and further, we have no proposal to do anything with the subdivision requirement which are separate from the body of the other zoning requirements and have already created anomalies within Edgemoor. Note that we have a gated community in our midst as well as a unique district which proposes dense development on part of a tract of land and permanent open space on the rest. So far, we have not addressed these developments nor were they addressed in the Planning Academy programs.

Subdivision Regulation, or Planned Unit Development Guidelines, seem to allow major flexibility to the developer in response to trade-offs for what is broadly identified as public benefit (parks, road upgrades, and the like).

It is not clear to me if that includes provision for uses such as convenience stores, churches, public meeting places and the like.

I will be away in January and most of February and possibly in late December so my availability is limited this year.

If we dawdle too much and do not set any timetable for completion of any of the remaining tasks, events out of our control are likely to overtake us with unknown effect. If we complete the process, speak for what we want, we will have fulfilled our mandate and accomplished what we set out to do.

As a result, I suggest we:

1. Accept the outline of steps as was proposed for Fairhaven Neighbors and add our own completion dates.

2. Present a timeline and initial draft Outline to the Association as a whole before the end of the year for the Association approval.(November, 2007)

3. Start the Outline Community Input/ Outline revision process toward the end of the year. (December)

4.Complete the draft Plan in early 2008, perhaps by the end of March, 2008 and plan a first submission to the City by the end of May.

Martin Nickerson

11/19/2007