Rezoning Proposed of Padden Trails

The Samish Neighborhood Association agrees that the Bellingham City Council should review the Padden Trails rezoning project that would increase the number of houses built in the area. But they also have some major concerns about the project.

The proposal would increase the density of the 113 acres just west of Lake Padden Park from 20,000 sq. ft. per unit to 8,000 sq. ft. per unit. The managing partner, George Huston, said this is merely a guideline and that it is up to the engineers to figure out the density that is feasible for this type of land. This proposal would increase the number of units allowed in the area from 224 homes to 635 units.

The neighborhood’s main concern about the project is the increase in traffic, said Greg McCracken, the Samish Neighborhood Association president. There is only one entrance and exit to the Padden Trails area, McCracken said, through 34th Street up to Connelly.  

The roads between Connelly and 40th Street, known as the ‘stair steps,’ have long been identified as a problem area for traffic, he said.  “And 600 more cars driving in and out in the morning and evening could really impact traffic on Connelly and that interchange,” McCracken said.

There are also no sidewalks in the area and the roads are all very narrow, McCracken said.

According to a letter sent by Rick and Nancy Chartrand to the city council and the Planning Commission, the rezoning project would increase the number of trips per day to 6,700. They suggest that the developers first obtain approval for the severe traffic flow disruptions from the homes on 34th Street before going ahead with the project.

The neighborhood association suggests traffic lights or circles on 34th Street in order to control the flow of traffic. “But I don’t know if any are feasible on a street with that kind of slope,” McCracken said.  

During the summertime, when so many people are trying to get to Lake Padden, these roads become virtually jammed, said Christopher Grannis, the president of the South Neighborhood Association who is also involved in the project. “They don’t normally consider the location of the increase of traffic,” Grannis said.  “This will slow things down on the freeway and all the way into Fairhaven.”

To combat the issue of increased traffic, there is already a plan underway to reroute 33rd Street and have it connect to 34th Street near Connelly, below Cody, McCracken said. He said that the city is looking for ways to improve traffic in the area.

Having only one entrance and exit is not just bad for traffic, it is also bad for emergency vehicles who will need to get into the development, McCracken said. “If there is a forest fire there, it would just be a catastrophe to get emergency vehicles in and get people out to safety too,” he said. There was a fire in the Padden Trails area in 1985, so fire is not out of the question, McCracken said.

“From a safety point of view, I simply can’t understand why the city staff recommended that such a proposal even be docketed,” Grannis said.

A high density cul de sac such as the one proposed is very susceptible to fire and other natural hazards, said Robert P. Gibb, M.D. in a letter to the Bellingham City Council and the Planning Commission.

There are also several environmental concerns associated with this proposal. The Samish Neighborhood Plan describes the land in this area as having extremely steep slopes with very difficult access and interspersed wetlands. Land like this is very difficult to build on,  McCracken said. He said more cement and impervious surfaces would increase the amount of polluted runoff into Padden Creek that runs along the northeast corner of the area.

The Puget Sound Partnership has identified keeping the tributaries of Puget Sound clean and safe as one of their main goals, Grannis said. The Padden Creek is one of the main tributaries to the sound and as well as a salmon bearing creek, he said. “The Puget Sound is slowly dying in increments and adding more runoff into one of its tributaries is not a good thing,” he said.

Grannis also said increased density in a neighborhood on the outskirts of a city goes against what Sustainable Connections believes is a viable city. There should be a dense downtown with density decreasing as you move outwards, he said. This isolated area is also served by only one WTA bus stop on Samish Way at 38 Street. Grannis said putting that many people in an area with limited public transportation is not feasible and “just not what they call smart growth.”

The proposal includes a clustering technique as a way to diminish the effects on the environment. There would be clusters of homes or units mainly on the western portion of the area to minimize the runoff into Padden Creek and to avoid the steep cliffs. “I think it’s a good idea because it will help to protect the wetlands in the area,” McCracken said.

The Samish Neighborhood Association also said that the increase in the number of homes will decrease the quality of life in the area. There is some concern that college students will be the ones renting these units, McCracken said. “That, in itself, isn’t a problem, but if there are rental units that are being abused, that could diminish the character of the neighborhood,” he said.

Though there are many concerns with this project, the Samish Neighborhood Association supports this project being docketed because this is the best place for this kind of building to take place, McCracken said. They think that the Bellingham City Council should take a look at it and see what can be done to improve it, he said. Grannis also agrees that there are ways for this project to be a good one without increasing the density.

“The city has been talking about infill and increasing density. If there’s ever an area in the neighborhood to do that, this is probably a good one,” McCracken said. “But it’s definitely not something we’d want to see throughout the neighborhood.”

New Sunday School in Spanish

The Community Baptist Church is starting a new Sunday school that will be conducted in Spanish for the children of Hispanic families who attend the church. There are already services held in Spanish on Sunday mornings, but the Sunday school is only in English.

The church is trying to reinvent itself, said Pastor Josh Wright. “We want to get more younger people and more community members here,” he said.

He said they mostly have older people and young families attending, not normally college students or younger generations.

The new Sunday school will allow the Hispanic kids who go to the church to learn the faith through their own native language. “We want everyone to feel included,” Wright said. “There’s no reason why the kids can’t learn about God through the Spanish language.”

The church started reaching out to the Hispanics in the community by adding a Spanish service during Easter of last year. Wright said it has been going well so far, and he looks forward to the growing community. He said some cultural barriers have been difficult to overcome. “But we’re going slow and slowly breaking those walls down,” he said.

The church does various activities to reach out to the community and to get more people involved. During the summers they have free carwashes and hand out water bottles outside of grocery stores on hot days, he said.

They have also done a community giveaway four years in a row now. “We open the church on a Saturday morning and if we have it, you need it, go ahead and take it,” he said.

There are also family fun days after church where everyone brings food to share and the kids play out on the back field. “It’s a place to enjoy time together without having to spend any money,” he said.

Move to Ban Fireworks in Bellingham

The Samish Neighborhood Association (SNA) sent a letter to the Bellingham Police Department  and the city council in early January calling for increased enforcement of the current fireworks laws inside the city.

According to the city ordinance, fireworks are prohibited in Bellingham except on July 4 and Jan. 1. This is more restrictive than the state law that says they can be shot off between June 28 and July 5.

“But fireworks start weeks before the fourth and end weeks after,” said Clay Butler, a Bellingham resident.
Butler is heading a movement in the city to ban fireworks in Bellingham. He has presented his ideas to all the neighborhood associations, asking for their support of the ban.

The Samish Neighborhood Association felt they couldn’t support the ban, but decided to send a letter encouraging the police department to pay more attention to this issue, said Greg McCracken, President of the SNA.
“The majority of the board felt that fireworks were not a problem in the neighborhood,” McCracken said.

Butler has also started an online blog and petition to allow conversation and comments from community members. He said there are about 350 people in the city who are willing to comment and support him on this issue.

The ban would make shooting off fireworks during unauthorized times into a criminal offense.

“When someone reports fireworks, by the time police determine whether or not it’s a violation, the people who are setting off fireworks have already gone back in their house,” Butler said.
He said it affects people who have come back from war with PTSD more than others because the noise is so loud that it scares them.

Being so close to the Lummi Indian Reservation is a big contributor to these fireworks, Butler said. “People go out and buy them on the reservation and then bring them back into town where they are illegal,” he said.

Fireworks are also huge fire hazards, Butler said. In the late 1990’s, a woman died in a house fire in Bellingham caused by people mishandling fireworks, he said. A group of college students were drinking in two separate houses and shooting fireworks at each other. The house caught on fire and a woman died in the upstairs bedroom.

It was a senseless death,” said City Councilman Stan Snapp, a supporter of the ban and a former Bellingham firefighter.

After this death, the idea of a ban was presented to the city council and they restricted the use of fireworks to just two days out of the year rather than the 10 days that the state law allows, Snapp said.

“On [the council’s] lines, they feel like they’ve already fixed it,” Snapp said.

50 other cities in the state have already banned all fireworks in the city, Butler said. He said that Spokane is one of the best success stories on this issue. They banned fireworks over 18 years ago and have decreased the number of firework related injuries and damages by quite a lot, he said.

The Bellingham police are having a difficult time enforcing the restrictions they have now, said Deputy Chief David Doll for the Bellingham Police Department.

“If someone is being blatantly unsafe, the officer will confiscate the fireworks and write a ticket,” Doll said. “But typically it’s a warning. But we do increase our enforcement during the summer.”  
Doll said that there were 19 primary calls in 2010 that involved fireworks violations, with 14 of these calls in June and July.

“It is going to take a big push from the fire department or a neighborhood group to get the ball rolling,” Snapp said.

Winter Golfing

Lake Padden’s Winter Golf Tour is a two and half month long event that allows players to come play golf when they otherwise would be inside avoiding the cold weather.

During the tour, individuals compete in different events for a place on teams of four that then play for $1,000 credit that can be used for the shop, food, or reoccurring fees. This $1,000 prize is paid for by the entrance fees that the golfers have to pay to participate in the events and by the golf course itself, said Greg Morris, founder of the golf tour.

The fourth annual tour started on Jan. 8 with the Polar Bear Open and will end on March 12.

There are a lot less people who come out to the golf course in the winter than in the summer, Morris said. “If we didn’t have these type of events, people wouldn’t come out as much.” He said there is an average of 300 regulars in the summer and around 15 in the winter. But the lack of golfers doesn’t affect business as much as it could, he said.

“This year we’ve averaged about 50 people each weekend, which on the weekend is pretty good,” Morris said.

Morris first founded the tour at the North Bellingham Golf Course, and then established one at Lake Padden when he changed jobs. Morris got into the sport of golfing when he was 10-years-old and has been playing ever since.

“I love to come to work and know that there’s a sport I enjoy,” he said.

There are three major events throughout the tour: an individual tourney, the winter five-man, and a one person scramble. There are no teams in an individual tourney; everyone competes for the highest score. During the five-man event, each player of a five person team takes turns being the “choker,” someone who’s score counts for half of the team’s overall score. And in the one person scramble, a two person team tees off, picks the best drive, and then both hit from that spot.

Being in Bellingham, the weather affects the game more than other places, Morris said. “But the tournaments we have now wouldn’t be something you’d be able to play in the summer so it works out,” he said. People don’t seem to have an issue with too much rain or too much snow.

“There are a lot of nice golf courses out there, but this is the best public course I’ve seen,” said Don Lewis, one of last year’s tour winners. He says he’s pretty much a golf fanatic and has been playing for more than 30 years.

“I really appreciate the fact that you can go golfing in the middle of the winter,” Lewis said. He said he likes playing golf because “it’s a walk in the park.”

The Lake Padden Golf Course has been voted King 5’s NW Backroad’s 2009 Best ‘Out of the Way’ Golf Course and the Bellingham Herald’s ‘Best Golf Course in Whatcom County.’

“It’s designed for every level of player,” said Lauren Williams a recent Western graduate and an employee at the course. “There are different places to tee off from so it’s more fair.”

5th graders at Wade King Elementary learning directions during Mandarin class.

Wade King's International Baccalaureate program

Six months after becoming the first fully authorized International Baccalaureate World School in the state, Wade King Elementary’s support from community members is growing steadily. “We’ve had an overwhelming endorsement from the families who are attending here,” said Principal Rob McElroy. “We have many elements families want for their kids.”

There are currently 420 students attending Wade King, he said, and over 100 of those students are from outside the Samish neighborhood.

The Primary Years program, part of the program designed for kids ages 3 to 12, focuses on allowing students to take control of their own education by letting them decide what they want to learn about.

“The kids realize that they are in charge of their own learning,” said Teresa Werner, co-president of the PTA, a substitute teacher and parent. She said her daughter came home from kindergarten one day and decided she needed a ‘wonder wall’, a place for her to post questions and be encouraged to find the answers on her own. “One of her questions on the board right now is ‘Is a coconut a fruit or a nut?’” Werner said.

Wade King opened in 2008 and participated in the rigorous, two year authorization process until being accepted into the program in July 2010. 

There are currently 245 International Baccalaureate schools in the country, ranging from elementary to high school, but only one in Washington. Northern Heights Elementary School, in the Barkley neighborhood, is a candidate IB school and will follow in Wade King’s footsteps if they are accepted into the program in the spring. 

The inquiry-based program lets kids study any subject they want as long as it falls under a certain category. For example, if the second graders are learning about life cycles, one student could choose to study the life cycle of a butterfly, while another student could decide to learn about fish.    

The IB program has developed a learner profile that details the kind of person a student should become to be able to change the world, McElroy said. “All of our programs and projects lead towards this learner profile, using inquiry as our mechanism of learning,” he said.

            “I think we are going to see an expansion of the IB program in the future in Washington state,” McElroy said. 

Because it is a public school, Wade King has the same standards as other public elementary schools, he said. The kids enter middle school knowing all the same material that other children know, but they also have the knowledge of other cultures and other people, McElroy said. 

Fifth graders are required to set up an exhibition that demonstrates their understanding of the key points of the Primary Years Program and how it will benefit them in the future. Project ideas could range from addressing homelessness in the area to evaluating the nutrition of the cafeteria food. 

The school’s mission statement starts out similar to other schools, McElroy said, focusing on knowledge and developing self-sufficient children. But then it goes on to say they want to develop kids who are going to change the world.

“We are focused on helping kids understand a culture that is vastly different from theirs,” McElroy said. 

To do this, every student at Wade King is learning Mandarin in some form or another. The school chose this as its second language because many Asian countries are becoming major leaders in today’s society and will continue to do so in the future, McElroy said. 

It absolutely helps that all the kids in the school are learning the same language, Werner said. The library holds an extensive Mandarin collection that the students can check out and take home. To encourage parents to get involved too, the school occasionally holds Mandarin workshops so they can speak Mandarin at home with their children.

In choosing the IB program over other programs, McElroy said he “tried to anticipate what the world will be like when these kids graduate in 2020.” 

Bulletin boards around the school highlight student’s real-world contributions to the community, McElroy said. 

“I like the expectation that kids take meaningful action based on what they’re learning,” said Tiffany Gutierrez, a 4^th grade teacher at Wade King. She said her students are currently working on raising money for the impoverished children in Pakistan and Afghanistan after reading Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea.” Mortenson is speaking at Skagit Valley College in the next couple weeks and she said several of her students are planning to attend.

Werner, being the co-president of the PTA, interacts with many parents on a daily basis. “I am always pleasantly surprised how similar our children’s experiences are,” she said. “It’s not just my child.”

Welcome to the Samish Neighborhood!

The Samish Neighborhood is located to the east of I-5 in the Southeast corner of Bellingham. It is bordered by Consolidation Street to the North, I-5 to the West and South, and Racine Street to the East. The heavily wooded areas and picturesque views make this a peaceful and quiet place to live. Residents can enjoy walks around Lake Padden or Ridgemont parks, playing a round at the golf course, or walks with the dog at the dog park.
The Samish Neighborhood Plan details resident’s desires to maintain the natural beauty of the area. Proximity to I-5 and Sehome Village let the residents live in a secluded neighborhood while enjoying the convenience of nearby shopping and amenities.