Port of Bellingham News Release
For Immediate Release Contact: Mike Stoner,
April 13, 2006 360-676-2500 PORT COMMISSION WILL HAVE TWO WATERFRONT MEETINGS WEDNESDAY (April 19)
Focus will be on Local Channel Designation for Whatcom Waterway and
Western’s Waterfront Plans
[Bellingham, Wash.] In addition to its regular Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, the Bellingham Port Commission on Wednesday (April 19) also will have two afternoon meetings on waterfront redevelopment topics.
At noon on Wednesday, the Commission will have a special two-hour meeting to get an update on Western Washington University’s waterfront planning efforts. Western’s Waterfront Development Committee and its consultant will present the preliminary plans for the university's presence on Bellingham's waterfront that have been developed over a two-year period with participation from the campus community.
The port has been working with Western during this planning process and provided a portion of the funding for Western’s consultants to develop a plan to move some of Western’s operations to the waterfront in the future. More information about Western’s planning effort is available on Western’s website: www.wwu.edu/president/waterfrontnews.htm
Additionally, at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the Commission will reconvene its regular Tuesday work study session to hear a staff presentation about a proposed adjustment to the boundaries of the Whatcom Waterway federal channel. The Whatcom Waterway is located in the central part of the city's waterfront which is undergoing a transition from exclusively industrial uses to a broader mix of uses, including additional public access, moorage, residential, businesses, and light industry. The adjustment would change the inner portion of the Whatcom Waterway changed from a federal channel designation to a locally managed waterway. A locally managed inner waterway allows for greater flexibility in the redevelopment of the city's waterfront.
This adjustment to the Whatcom Waterway would help bring to reality the community’s goal of transforming the inner portion of the waterway from a historically industrial shoreline with creosoted pilings, bulkheads and large fixed docks to one that could be softened to be more accessible to the public and also allow the restoration of shoreline habitat connected to Whatcom Creek. In addition to improved public access and habitat features within a locally managed waterway, the redevelopment of the city's waterfront could also include the construction of appropriately designed docks for recreational, commercial and visiting boater moorage.
This adjustment would only apply to the inner waterway from the Roeder Avenue bridge outward to the Bellingham Shipping Terminal. The federal channel designation would be preserved in the waterway adjacent to the deep-draft Bellingham Shipping Terminal and would set the stage for future dredging in the Shipping Terminal area to maintain a deep-draft area for shipping or other related deep-draft uses.
The Port Commission will take no action and no public comment on either matter during the Wednesday meetings. Both meetings will be at the Port's Harbor Center Conference Room, 1801 Roeder Avenue.
On May 2, during the Commission’s regular 3 p.m. business meeting, it is anticipated there will be a brief recap of the Whatcom Waterway presentation and a public hearing on whether the port should ask Congress to change the boundaries of the federal channel in the Whatcom Waterway to allow for local control of the inner waterway area.
For more information on the Whatcom Waterway go to this link at the Port’s website.
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