The owners and developers of the Padden Trails area of the Samish neighborhood have released a response to the Samish Neighborhood Association’s request of the City to deny the area’s rezoning. The response includes revisions to the original application that attempt to appease members of the association.
The Padden Trails area is located at the south side of the neighborhood along Interstate 5.
Padden Trails LLC and Free Spirit Enterprises LLC’s response to the neighborhood association’s position suggests first a change in unit size from 8,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet, reducing the population density of the originally proposed plan.
The address also states that the Padden Trails road systems will be built in order to allow for the use of WTA busses.
The corporations also address the issue of heavy traffic flow in their letter to the association. The developers have agreed to fund a traffic light at the northbound off ramp of I-5.
They also agree to pay for four-way stop signs at the intersection of 34th Street and Connelly Avenue.
The original rezoning application requested to rezone the Padden Trails area of the Samish Neighborhood from a Residential Single zone to a Multifamily Residential zone, changing the unit size for homes from 20,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet. This would allow for more housing units to be built in the area.
This proposed development of what would include duplexes, townhomes and condominiums has been argued by the neighborhood association to create hazards including traffic increase and fire safety issues. The association also expresses concern over the geographic isolation as well as the steep slopes of the area.
The long list of issues “cannot be narrowed down,” said Joe Carpenter, president of the Samish Neighborhood Association. The association must address all the concerns that people living in the neighborhood may have, he said.
Carpenter said that his main concern is that there is only one way in and out of the area, making it difficult for the Bellingham Fire Department to respond to emergencies in adequate time, forcing the department to require sprinkler systems in all homes in the Padden Trails Area.
The neighborhood association’s request describes the concern that the neighborhood has about the increase in criminal activity in the area. “Its physical isolation from the rest of the Samish neighborhood… may attract criminal activities that would adversely impact the safety, health or general welfare of the neighboring residents.”
Carpenter described a similar concern. “I see this as a neighborhood that in 20 to 30 years will develop a bad nickname from cops, because of the people who live there. Once an area goes bad, it doesn’t go good again.”
Fellow Samish Neighborhood Association member Dick Conoby has similar concerns. He said that “opening up development back there will eventually lead to rentals” and will then lower the property value in the Padden Trails, “basically creating a slum.”
The neighborhood association suggests that the development be moved elsewhere.
It is stated in the Samish Neighborhood Association’s request that the development should be moved to a major arterial such as San Juan Boulevard or Governor Road.
“Our neighborhood is not against development, we’ve clarified that multiple times,” said Carpenter. He instead suggests that the development happen in the area of woods that is less isolated, rather than a piece of land that is “trapped between the freeway and the lake.”
Padden Trails LLC and Free Spirit Enterprises LLC teamed up early this year in hopes of successfully achieving a rezoning of the Padden Trails area.
The consideration of the rezone was approved by the City of Bellingham in February 2011, and will soon be up for review by the Planning and Development Commission.
The meeting has been scheduled multiple times, said Carpenter.
The most recent meeting was scheduled for Oct. 6, but was cancelled by the developers because both the Transportation Commission and the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission failed to follow proper procedure, says the Samish Neighborhood Association website. They voted on the matter without informing the involved parties, said Carpenter.
The date of the next meeting has not yet been determined, but it is not expected before December of this year, says the neighborhood association’s website.
For more information visit the Samish Neighborhood Association’s website at samishneighborhood.org, or visit the Padden Trails website at paddentrails.net.
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