Parking worries mount as urban village plan moves forward

Loss of parking space is a top concern among neighborhood residents and business owners alike as the Fountain District Urban Village Subarea Plan moves into its final stages.

The plan’s intent is to bring people to the Fountain District via multiple modes of transportation, said Katie Franks, the development specialist working on the plan for the city’s Planning and Community Development Department. This means widening sidewalks and adding bike lanes, which would remove some on-street parking.

The Planning Commission proposed a change to the plan during its work session Thursday to allow parking facilities in all “commercial transition” areas – those blocks between the commercial core and the single-family homes in the surrounding neighborhoods. Before, the plan only allowed for parking in one such area. This change, according to the work session summary, would create more parking opportunities in the Fountain District.

Steven Choat, who lives in the Columbia neighborhood, wrote a letter to Franks on behalf of his neighbors, in which he argued against the proposal to add a bike lane to Elm Street at the cost of removing on-street parking on one side of the street.

“It would not only present a huge inconvenience for the owners of these homes and businesses and impact adjoining areas,” Choat wrote, “but also create financial hardship via the loss of revenue for business owners and the possible negative impact on home values.”

The urban village plan also includes painting on-street parking spaces onto the sides of Meridian Street.

Residents anxious about overflow

Franks said residents of the Cornwall Park and Columbia neighborhoods have brought up concerns about their own parking areas being taken over. She said residents are worried that if business starts booming on Meridian Street, customer parking would overflow into those neighborhoods.

Every urban village plan, Franks said, includes the option to create a “residential parking zone,” which means that if commercial parking starts to overflow into residential areas, the people living there could change the zoning in the area to say that only they could park there.

Property owners fear loss of business

Business and property owners have been predicting a slump in business under the plan. Lee Walkup, owner of the building at 2400 Meridian St. now occupied by Diamond Jim’s Grill, said parking is vital to keeping business coming into an area.

“We need lots of people to come in and out of stores to make a business run,” said Walkup, who owned a bakery on his property for 13 years before he began renting it to other businesses. “Looking at cutting parking does not facilitate that.”

Franks said the plan attempts to strike a balance between addressing such criticism and encouraging the “walkability” of the commercial core, which it hopes will bring more foot traffic to neighborhood businesses.

“We don’t expect everyone to be walking and biking and bussing there, but we also want to be able to encourage that, because there are a lot of people that walk and bike in these neighborhoods and there’s really good bus service,” she said. “[If] it’s more easy for people to do that, that’s one creative way to address the need for parking. That’s not the end-all – we still definitely expect people will need to park – but it’s kind of a holistic view where we try to balance everything.”

The proposal for Monroe Street would remove two parking spaces next to Walkup’s property, which sits across from Fountain Plaza Park.

Franks said she knows having less parking might negatively impact some shops.

“Some businesses really rely on impulse stops: you’re not planning to go somewhere, but you see a cool store and you want to stop,” Franks said. “If you can’t find a parking space, you may just not end up stopping.”

Height another hot button

Building height restrictions have been another point of contention – mostly for residents.

Members of the Cornwall Park Neighborhood Association debated the issue at length during their May 13 meeting, with some saying building heights should be up to planning directors’ discretion and other saying they don’t want commercial buildings to be any taller than they are now.

One neighborhood association member, John McGarrity, said at the meeting that Meridian Street is becoming a declining strip mall, and the only way to fix that is to allow buildings there to be more than three or four stories tall.

The urban village plan attempts to find a compromise by limiting building heights to 45 feet on Meridian Street, with certain places – such as the flagship Haggen store – allowed to be 55 feet tall. Right now, the limit in the area is 35 feet, with no specific height limit for the Haggen site.

Franks pointed out that even under that unlimited height allowance, Haggen has not changed its building and, she said, its owners currently have no plans to develop.

The next steps

Although the official public comment period was slated to close on May 20, the Planning and Community Development Department will hold another public hearing next week about the urban village plan – specifically, the proposals for Elm and Meridian Streets. The plans for both these streets include parking changes. The hearing will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 17, in the City Council chambers on the second floor of City Hall, located at 210 Lottie St.

The urban village plan has been in the works for about a year and a half, with the first public workshops held in April 2009. Ultimately, the plan must be approved by the Bellingham City Council.

After last Thursday’s work session and next week’s public hearing, Franks said, the planning commission could recommend the plan be approved. Once that happens, the city will post the plan online and open up a 30-day comment period for the public. After that, the plan can go to the City Council for approval. Franks said she hopes this last step will happen in August.

From there, it goes on the shelf waiting to be used.

“We look at it as kind of a 20-year plan,” Franks said.

Due mostly to budget cuts, she said, the changes laid out in the plan are not likely to be implemented anytime soon. They will simply act as a guideline for future development, if and when it happens.

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Trash fashion show rakes in treasure

A record number of people attended this year’s trash fashion show put on by The RE Store, and the show brought in the most money it ever has in Bellingham.

About 240 people were at the show, which is twice as many people as have attended in the past, said Jason Darling, education and marketing coordinator for RE Sources and The RE Store.

The fashion show is part of The RE Store’s annual recycled art show. The store puts on shows in both Bellingham and Seattle. The Bellingham show this year was on Western Washington University’s campus instead of its usual downtown venue, Wild Buffalo House of Music. It featured student designers for the first time.

Darling said the show made $1,627 after expenses such as university-contracted labor to put on the event on campus. He said that’s the most money the Bellingham show has ever made.

The goal of the show, Darling said, is to raise awareness rather than money. He said it’s a way to promote The RE Store and the concept of “trash as treasure.”

“It’s our gift to the larger community,” Darling said. “We’re creating a container for all the amazing reuse creativity that is out there.”

Read about the show and its new venue and designers

The RE Store’s recap of the show
Photos from the show

Tutorial on how to weave old plastic bags into fashionable home-decoration items (e.g. throw pillows)

The RE Store’s website

Meridian music shop has mojo

Neighborhood store Mojo Music Discount and its music school, Mojo School of Music, have successfully expanded despite the tough economy.

Among the empty storefronts peppering the area’s commercial core, one business in the Cornwall Park neighborhood has managed to thrive — and expand.
Mojo Music Discount has extended some of its store operations, as well as its Mojo School of Music, into a building a few blocks up Meridian Street from the current store. The final stages of the move finished about a week ago, said Mojo Music founder and owner Doug Suther, and business is slowly starting to pick up.
“I think the profits will start appearing down the road a piece, but we’re starting to get pretty good cash flow out of there,” Suther said. “One step at a time.”
Building the next generation of music lovers
Manager Michael Roe credited the store’s music school for much of its success.
“[Mojo School of Music] is a key part of what we do at Mojo because it helps to train and encourage the next generation of musicians to love and appreciate music,” Roe said.
The school has 10 to 12 instructors who teach everything from guitar to songwriting to hand-drumming. Beyond physically expanding, Mojo School of Music has also acquired a new teacher in the past month, and with him, about 75 new students.
Suther said programs like Mojo’s often help supplement school music programs, which may not provide the individual attention a student needs to master an instrument.
“If you have kids and you realize that they’re in a school band program and they’ve got 40, 45 kids sitting around them, and on instructor trying to teach them all how to play a different instrument, it’s pretty tough for the kid to get all the education he needs to really be good on that instrument,” Suther said. “As a school of music and as a music store, we provide that service.”
Private instruction can also help students if their music time at school has suffered due to the economy, Roe said.
“With all the cutbacks in local school music programs,” Roe said, “we feel that it is important to help music students and provide the tools they need to continue to grow musically.”
Mojo doesn’t exclusively teach youths, though; its programs are for people of any age and any skill level. The school offers summer workshops for community members, culminating in an annual showcase in which students have a chance to show off their newly acquired talents.
A symbiotic relationship
Instructor Bob McDonald will facilitate a classical guitar ensemble this summer at the school. He said the store and the school have a symbiotic relationship, in that each helps the other grow.
“The more you know musically,” McDonald said, “the more you thirst for.”
McDonald has been teaching at Mojo for five and a half years and has 54 students who are between 5 and 85 years old. He teaches styles of guitar-playing ranging from classical to punk to metal.
“It’s all about getting students to unlock their personal expression and passion for music and what they are invigorated by,” McDonald said. “That’s when music becomes alive.”
Adapting to a changing economy
The new space houses all the store’s instrument repairs and rentals and a studio for some of the music school’s lessons. The store is now primarily used for instrument sales.
Suther said another way the store was able to weather the recession is by changing its inventory to remain accessible to customers.
“It got real tight there for a while, so Mike and I sat down and we figured out a strategy that would make up for that lost revenue that wasn’t coming in,” Suther said. “We decided to change the structure of the inventory a little bit: less high-end items, and more items suited for student use. That’s proven to be real good. We’ve kind of adapted our inventory to meet the current needs of store.”
Forty years old and still growing
Suther opened Mojo Music in 1971 in Fairhaven, eventually relocating downtown and farther up Meridian before settling into its current location in the Fountain District 12 years ago. Music lessons have always been a part of the business, and are still helping it thrive today.
“I’m going to be celebrating my 40th year in business in Bellingham with Mojo Music in December of this year. I can’t even believe it when I say it,” Suther said. “I founded it myself. I was 21 years old and came up to Bellingham and opened up on a wing and a prayer.”
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Other roads slated for repaving are near Cornwall Park neighborhood

The section of Meridian Street between Birchwood Avenue and Interstate 5 is not the only road whose neighbors could be disturbed by night noise this summer. Three other roads are slated for repaving, and each is just outside the Cornwall Park neighborhood.
The section of Woburn Street between Barkley Boulevard and Sunset Drive (just east of the Cornwall Park neighborhood) and the section of Kellogg Road between Meridian Street and Cordata Parkway (just north of the neighborhood) will also be repaved over the course of eight nights in August.
The stretch of Bakerview Road between Deemer Road and Irongate Road (just north of the Cornwall Park neighborhood) will be repaved in June and will take ten nights to complete.
Repaving will occur between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. on planned work nights. All three repaving projects are exempt from usual nighttime noise restrictions, which affect the hours between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Links

Read my original story on this issue and how it will affect hotels on Meridian Street

Noise Variance Request: Letter to the City Council from Granite Construction requesting exemption from noise restrictions — maps of the areas slated for repaving are on the last few pages of these documents

City of Bellingham Public Works department

Bellingham Municipal Code — BMC 10.24.120 (item 4 limits construction noise)

Hotels brace for night repaving in busy summer season

Night repaving of Meridian Street, scheduled for August, could disturb hotel guests and hurt business during the busiest season of the year.

Employees at hotels along a stretch of Meridian Street slated for night repaving are bracing for the project’s impact on their business and on their guests.
The Bellingham City Council voted 7-0 Monday to allow repaving of Meridian Street between Birchwood Avenue and Interstate 5, along with several other sections of road throughout the city.
The repaving will occur only between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., according to a letter from Rick Niebruegge, project manager for Granite Construction, the company doing the repaving. The Meridian Street work is expected to last eight days, starting in August.
Niebruegge wrote to the city that doing the work at night would shorten the length of the project and reduce its impact on traffic and on homeowners.
The areas that will be repaved are mainly commercial or industrial, so there aren’t many homeowners who could be impacted. The section of Meridian Street slated for repaving does not have homes directly along it; Bellingham Golf and Country Club stretches along one side of the street and commercial buildings, including two hotels, are on the other.
Night noise excused
Employees of these hotels say they worry the project could hurt their businesses.
“[A quiet room] is the main thing that people ask for, especially being right next to the freeway,” said Alexis Jones, a front desk clerk at EconoLodge Inn and Suites on Meridian Street next to Interstate 5.
Jones said potential guests, who already need reassurance about noise at a hotel near the freeway, could be wary of staying at a hotel that is also right next to nighttime road work.
“It’s already busy,” she said. “You have to tell people it does quiet down at night, and that does throw that whole theory out the window.”
In its summary statement to the City Council Monday, Granite Construction asked to be excused from following the section of the Bellingham Municipal Code that restricts construction noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The request was granted when the repaving project was approved.
Potential for complaints
Val Park, a front-desk employee at Rodeway Inn, said he anticipates guests complaining about the noise.
“If it’s loud, that’s going to piss off a lot of people here,” Park said.
Noise concerns aside, Park said the repaving work could mean people won’t stop in at the hotel in the first place, even if the work is done at night.
“There’s still a lot of walk-in guests during the night,” Park said. “People are going to think it’s inconvenient to stay here as opposed to motels down on Samish [Way].”
Park said August is one of the hotel’s busiest seasons.
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Chowing down for charity

Two Cornwall Park-area businesses benefited from benefiting Maple Alley Inn for the 10th annual Dine Out.

Thanks to Diamond Jim’s Grill’s recent move to the Fountain District, Cornwall Park residents had two options to “Dine Out” in their neighborhood Tuesday.
Dine Out is an annual event organized by the Opportunity Council to benefit its Maple Alley Inn program, which serves hot, nutritional meals to people in need. Participating restaurants donate 20 percent of their profits from the day to Maple Alley Inn.
Cascade Pizza Inn, the other Cornwall Park neighborhood restaurant participating, has been involved with “Dine Out” every year since it began a decade ago.
Giving back can be good for business
This year, 40 restaurants participated in Dine Out. Most of those are part of a core group that participates every year, said Opportunity Council Executive Director Dave Finet.
Finet said he thinks restaurant owners choose to be part of Dine Out because they like to be able to show that they are socially responsible.
Sheri Emerson, director of communications for the Opportunity Council, agreed. She said the Opportunity Council conducts a survey of all the participating restaurants’ owners, and they often say Dine Out is a great way for them to give back to the community.
“Their staff and their patrons really appreciate being able to participate in this event,” Emerson said. “Also, a lot of them have told us it’s just good for the restaurant industry in general. [Participating restaurants] will get anywhere from 20 to, sometimes, 50 percent more business during Dine Out.”
Because 20 percent of the day’s profits go to Maple Alley Inn, Emerson said, restaurants usually either break even for the day after the donation, or make a higher profit than they would otherwise.
Tasia Tsoulouhas, who works at Cascade Pizza Inn, said she estimated the family-owned Italian restaurant was 40 percent busier Tuesday evening than usual.
One patron, Donna Pattinson, said that even though she rarely dines out, she was at Cascade Pizza Inn Tuesday night because she heard the restaurant was giving a percentage of its profits to a cause associated with feeding homeless people.
Getting community support
Maple Alley Inn has about 40 volunteers who have been making meals from scratch for seniors and people who are homeless, disabled or on limited incomes for 20 years. It was started in an alley off of Maple Street, behind the YWCA. The event has had several homes since then, Finet said, and now it takes place at Faith Lutheran Church on Northwest Avenue and McLeod Road.
Finet said that in addition to the funding it gets from Dine Out, Maple Alley Inn is supported by businesses like Hudson’s Bay and the Community Food Co-op.
“I think Maple Alley Inn enjoys a lot of community support from individuals and from businesses who donate food or money to make this program possible,” Emerson said.
She said the idea for Dine Out came from similar events elsewhere in the United States. It started with the Opportunity Council convincing a few restaurants that the event would be good for business, Emerson said, and now some restaurants contact the Opportunity Council to say they want to be a part of it.
Patrons do their part
Pattinson said she left a larger tip Tuesday night than she usually does.
“I feel I did my fair share,” she said.
Sara Burns, who Dined Out with her family, said her 16-year-old daughter heard about the event at school and encouraged her family to eat at Cascade Pizza Inn that night because it was an important cause to her.
“Especially in this economy,” Burns said, “you want to help as many people as you can.”
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Looking trashy: Recycled-fashion show finds new venue, new participants

The RE Store’s annual Trash Fashion Show will be open to all ages this year, having moved from a downtown music venue to Western Washington University’s campus.

The annual Recycled Art and Fashion Show put on by The RE Store got a boost this year thanks to the involvement of Western Washington University students.
Twenty of the 30 designs in this year’s show are by students, whose participation made it possible for the fashion show to move to a larger, all-ages venue.
Polly Carpenter, a customer-service representative at The RE Store, said this is the first year Western Washington University has been involved with the event.
In past years, The RE Store in Bellingham has held its trash fashion show at Wild Buffalo House of Music, a venue in downtown Bellingham. This year will be the first time the show is held on Western’s campus.
Courtney Hiatt, who manages the media and performing arts series for the university’s College of Fine and Performing Arts, approached RE Store staff about getting students involved with the show. She said she thought it would tie in well with another art event going on in April: an exhibition at the Western Gallery about artists’ reactions to environmental issues. Hiatt said it made sense to tie the two together because the projects have similar goals.
Getting the show moving
Soon after, with Hiatt’s help, The RE Store staff moved the show to the university’s Viking Union, which Hiatt said is available to any organization on Western’s campus that wants to reserve it.
The new venue is larger and, unlike Wild Buffalo House of Music, will allow people of all ages to attend the fashion show. Hiatt said that was especially important so students who are younger than 21 could be involved in or attend the show.
“The art department said, ‘Let’s do it up here,’” said Jason Darling, The RE Store’s education and marketing coordinator. “It was an obvious match.”
New people design with “different trash”
Students from Western professor Arunas Oslapas’ industrial design class submitted their designs to the fashion show and about a dozen of them were accepted, Darling said.
Hiatt said most of the students in the fashion show are industrial-design students, but a few are from Fairhaven College and the theatre arts department.
“It’s really exciting because students are so über-creative and have access to different trash up at the university than is in the dumpsters downtown,” Darling said. “There’s higher-quality trash on a university campus.”
Darling said he is excited to give so many new people the opportunity to showcase their designs, which he said are more impressive this year than ever.
“People are sharing that gift of creativity and craftsmanship,” Darling said. “We’re just creating a container for it.”
Going to “a whole other level”
Recycled art — defined as work comprised of at least 75 percent recycled materials — from students and other artists was on display through Sunday, April 25 at Allied Arts Gallery on Cornwall Avenue and The RE Store on Meridian Street. The RE Store also has functional pieces on display, including a couch made from an old claw-foot bathtub.
The RE Store in Seattle hosts a similar annual event there; this year’s Seattle show on April 17 marked the first time the event has included two fashion shows in one night. Both shows sold out.
Bellingham’s event has grown, too; the involvement of the university has led to more submissions, a larger venue and the opportunity for people of all ages to attend the fashion show.
“It’s just gone to a whole other level in Bellingham this year,” said Darling, who calls himself the show’s “coordinational hub.” Darling has organized the show in Bellingham for the past five years, and also coordinated last year’s Seattle show.
Adding trash fashion
Although this is the ninth year of the recycled-art show, the trash-fashion part of the event was only added six years ago. The RE Store partnered with designer Robin Worley to add the fashion element to the Seattle show in 2004 and the Bellingham show in 2006.
Worley is an original member of the Haute Trash Troupe, a group of performance artists that stages fashion shows featuring clothes made of everyday trash. The group has performed all over the West, from county fairs to Earth Day festivals to Burning Man.
Darling said trash fashion was a natural fit for The RE Store’s event because the goal of both shows is to get people to look at their garbage in a new way.
“[We thought], ‘Let’s get the recycled art together with the trash fashion and make a really fun, hilarious, wild, sexy event that can be a part of the show,” he said.
Everyone has a treasure can
Hiatt said she hopes student involvement continues in the coming years so students can continue to show their work alongside that of professionals. She said she is not sure whether the show will always be on Western’s campus, but she would like to continue working with The RE Store to keep student designers a part of the show.
Darling said people can save money and reuse things by shopping at thrift stores and at The RE Store, which sells mostly used building materials but also has items like furniture and paint.
“Reuse doesn’t have to be about art and fashion,” Darling said. “In this do-it-yourself era, digging around in your treasure can — instead of your trash can — is becoming an art form.”
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