New Design Rules for Old Town and Such

Hello all you Old Town workers, visitors and a few residents - and, of course, the other 2000 folks who live here in The Lettered Streets!

Old Town and a small portion of the neighborhood along Whatcom Creek now has Design Review with significant advantages over the previous Design Review for new or rehabilitated structures.

I encourage everyone to look at the link to the PDF on the CoB website. It's 61 pages but reads very quickly and easily. If the link is befuddling your efforts just Google "Bellingham City Center Design" and it'll be at the top of the list.

A taste of the intent: "This document presents design standards for the City Center in Bellingham, Washington. They reflect the City's goals to promote economic development, enhance the image of the downtown and reuse historic resources. The standards neither dictate taste nor assure good design. Rather, they support the
traditional qualities of the City Center and provide a framework for sympathetic
design (page 1)."

Note the "sympathetic design" wording. This will become very, very important as new structures take the place of bare ground or tired older buildings. All of us in the neighborhood should take a half an hour or an hour to read the City Center Design Guidelines and think about our role in shaping the neighborhood for the future.

In closing and in an effort to convince you that this issue should be on your front burner, we all moved here because of what the people before us did. Back then those folks were the "WE" and us folks were the "THEM" that were going to come. Now that we get to be the "WE" it is our duty to ensure that the "THEM" that are coming carry on the traditions that we have embraced.

It is our duty ensure that new arrivals know that this neighborhood has far more value to this city than they probably know and it's because citizens stood up at public meetings and made The Lettered Streets not only Bellingham's oldest neighborhood but also it's best.

Be active, Get involved!

M. McAuley
Your MNAC Rep