Blaine Confidential

What's up with the city selling public parking to downtown developers? Are they going to privatize 120 spaces of on-street parking? That's the whole downtown! Or is it a monetary contribution to go toward a municipal parking garage? If so, does that mean the new condo tenants use up all street parking leaving tourists with no parking until the municipal garage is built sometime in the distant future? Blaine is already on the brink of bankruptcy having recently announced a 33% budget cut for 2024. Killing downtown recovery for a couple of condo developers will be the final nail in the coffin.

Code of Conduct Public Participation Rule of Law

My 4/20/2024 letter to Blaine City Council, planning commission and community development: You have got the comprehensive plan process all wrong. Instead of beginning with a backroom deal between city hall and developers to launch a campaign to build a 72' tall wall of view-blocking condos downtown, the comprehensive plan by law is to begin with a community vision. A community vision is arrived at by holding town halls to discuss in open two-way communication the many aspects of our once-in-a-century major makeover of Blaine.  This major makeover includes both downtown and civic center, which is where your focus should be for economic recovery. A wall of condos without parking--necessitating construction of a municipal parking garage so shoppers won't be displaced by condo residents on Peace Portal--is detrimental to our economy.  What would be a boon to our economy is a community art center on the old city hall site, which is consistent with the city economic recovery plan of

Salishan Neighborhood Association critiques  the developers' vision for downtown promoted by Blaine Community Development Services. Madame Watchdog addresses how the city is blocking citizen input . More on the downtown spectacle in the news.

As an observer of Growth Management in Washington state since it was passed into law thirty-three years ago, I cannot recall a more egregious example of the intentional subversion of both the letter and spirit of the law by a city than what has transpired in Blaine. Not only did Community Development Services (CDS) fail to convene public participation--as required by law--in deciding how to go about creating a new economic development plan for downtown, but they also predetermined the desired outcome in cahoots with developers. My Comprehensive Plan Timeline might help you in comprehending the mess you find yourselves in. As I noted in my post Culture of Exclusion , "The significant changes to zoning and development regulations by Blaine City Council—absent from public participation—a​re not just ten-year updates to our comprehensive plan, cumulatively they are a once-in-a-century major makeover of our community. Expediting planning amendments by resolution to build momentum abse

As a supporter of your Blaine project (I arranged the community informational meeting with Paul Schissler and Pete Nelson) I was disappointed to see WCLS accept donations from BP and Phillips66 oil refineries for your Birch Bay project. The refineries have corrupted Whatcom County elections for a decade, and actively opposed the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians over fossil fuel export at Cherry Point. Putting their names on plaques on public buildings or in literature is a disservice to democracy. You can read more about BP crimes .