Kulshan CLT planning 20-home affordable housing project
Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Isaac Bonnell in News
By Isaac Bonnell
Kulshan Community Land Trust (CLT) is in the process of designing a 20-home affordable housing project on two acres in the Birchwood Neighborhood, similar to its Matthei Place project in Fairhaven, which was completed in 2008.
The first home, an energy-efficient, small-footprint house designed by Cascade Joinery, could break ground this fall, said Kulshan [...]
Bellingham develops potential transit funding mechanism
Posted on 09. Aug, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
Funding is tight for city road projects this year, and the future doesn’t look much better. This has led the city to pursue alternative ways of financing transportation projects.
Bellingham receives geography technology award
Posted on 09. Aug, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
The Bellingham Business Journal
Selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide, the city of Bellingham received a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award on July 14 at the 30th Annual Esri International User Conference in San Diego. The distinction honors vision, leadership, hard work, and innovative use of Esri’s GIS technology.
The city uses geographic information system [...]
New program encourages energy-efficiency lending
Posted on 05. Aug, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
The Bellingham Business Journal
Whatcom County’s Community Energy Challenge is the first in Washington state and one of the first in the nation to use stimulus funds to establish a system that allows home and business owners to get loans for energy efficiency projects using an innovative loan loss reserve program (LLR).
While encouraging banks to maintain [...]
Port, city release preliminary waterfront master plan
Posted on 21. Jul, 2010 by Isaac Bonnell in News
By Isaac Bonnell
The waterfront redevelopment project took another step forward this month when the Port of Bellingham and City of Bellingham released a preliminary draft master plan of the 220-acre project.
The preliminary plan comes on the heels of another milestone that was reached this month: the release of the finalized environmental impact statement (EIS), which [...]
PDA lays out strategy for city properties
Posted on 15. Jul, 2010 by Isaac Bonnell in Features
Tasked with developing city-owned properties, the Bellingham Public Development Authority has outlined how it plans to improve five downtown sites. The challenge will be working on all of them simultaneously.
B.C. tax exemption hearing moved back
Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
By Ryan Wynne
The Department of Revenue (DOR) will have to wait a bit longer before advising Washington retailers that British Columbia residents can buy goods in Washington without paying sales tax.
A restraining order barring the department from sharing that opinion with retailers will remain in place for an extra week.
The order is part of a [...]
City launches pilot program for same-day permits
Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
The Bellingham Business Journal
Beginning July 1, certain project applicants will be issued permits over-the-counter the same day applications are turned in as part of a pilot project in the city permit center. The permits, called “Subject-to-Field-Inspection” permits, will be issued for simple, well-defined projects.
“Many jurisdictions use this type of approach,” said Jim Tinner, Bellingham’s building [...]
City faces more budget shortfalls
Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
The Bellingham Business Journal
As budget development season begins for the city of Bellingham, administrators have little good financial news. While headlines show glimpses of hope for economic recovery, city revenues are below expectations, construction activity remains slow, and the city’s general fund is looking at a third year of deficit.
“Despite our citywide cost-cutting and our [...]
City of Bellingham steers away from tar sands oil
Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 by ryanwynne in News
By Ryan Wynne
The Bellingham City Council passed two resolutions Monday intended to gently steer the city away from using tar sands oil. The resolutions were passed just weeks after council renewed a 10-year franchise agreement with Trans Mountain Pipeline, which transports some of the controversial oil in a pipeline running through Bellingham.
Tar sands oil is [...]
