Bellingham Votes to End to Parking Mandates as Part of Housing Push

In a 5-1 vote Monday, the Bellingham City Council backed Mayor Kim Lund’s plan to end parking mandates citywide as part of her multi-pronged strategy to boost housing production. The vote signaled support for Mayor Lund’s broader strategy, which includes pursuing allowing sixplexes citywide on a faster timeline than required by the state and streamlining the permitting process.

On November 21, Lund issued an executive order directing City departments to take immediate actions to increase housing opportunities in Bellingham and pushed a package of reforms with the city council. Lund was elected in 2023 on a pro-housing platform, and appears intent on making good on those campaign pledges to ease the housing crisis. On December 9, Lund presented her executive order and associated legislation to Bellingham City Council. Monday’s committee vote will be followed by a full council vote in early January, but the vote is all but certain.

“The executive order is about taking immediate actions across the city that are within the city’s control to reduce these barriers that are getting in the way of expanding housing opportunities in Bellingham, and that many of these changes must happen in the coming years, because they are required by state law,” Lund told Council. “Yet I believe we can do much of the important work more quickly. So, much of the intention behind the executive order is to accelerate these actions, because we do not want our community to wait longer than necessary for action, and so we are proactively jumpstarting this process.”

Housing cost increases are outstripping wage growth and inflation, leading a majority of Bellingham renters to be cost-burdened, Lund noted.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/12/18/bellingham-votes-to-end-to-parking-mandates-housing-push/