Blaine Confidential

My letter today to Whatcom County Council: 20% of Birch Bay drinking water is supplied by the City of Blaine, which this summer allowed developers to start clearcutting the watershed in Blaine's Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) to build in the improperly designated Urban Growth Area (UGA) after illegally upzoning properties above our drinking water aquifer.  Blaine Water Coalition believes the City of Blaine may have overpromised its capacity to provide adequate water for the growth planned for East Blaine and Semiahmoo without proving the quantity and quality of the Sumas Aquifer now being contaminated by unlawful, reckless, and irresponsible development.  

Whatcom County is updating the 2025 comprehensive plan that includes Blaine. The email addresses to send comments are: 2025update@co.whatcom.wa.us and council@co.whatcom.wa.us Right now, development continues in the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) and Blaine Community Development director Alex Wenger wants to add development at Semiahmoo to replace any development in the CARA that is infeasible. The county council has to approve changes to Blaine's Urban Growth Area (UGA) so this is an opening to discuss Wenger's history of fraud with them. The county government is responsible for approving Blaine's comprehensive plan update and has authority to stop Wenger's criminal misconduct. If they only hear from me, they probably won't do anything about corruption in Blaine. We want the county council to investigate Wenger's unlawful upzoning in cahoots with developers both in the CARA and in the Central Business District (CBD).

My October 13, 2024, letter to Whatcom County Council: In his  October 10 letter to Blaine City Council , Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger proposes significant changes to Blaine's Urban Growth Areas. Allegedly, the de-annexation of a portion of the UGA is due to problems a developer is having in the aquifer protection recharge area.  The Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) for Blaine's drinking water should never have been included in Blaine's UGA, and Whatcom County failed us by allowing it. Whatcom County failed us again when last year you allowed Mr. Wenger to upzone the CARA for high-density residential development without doing an environmental impact statement as required by law. While climate resilience and environmental justice are the subjects of national policy discussions, little attention is focused on how laws such as the United States Clean Water Act and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) in Washington State are being subvert

October 8 letter from Glen Pentland to city council : October 8, 2024 Dear Blaine City Council and Planning Commission:  Re: Common Sense Planning – Reject the Building Height Recommendation  The Downtown Development Initiative has been off the rails since its inception over two years ago. Key concerns raised by many members of the community include:  The City repeatedly thwarts public engagement Despite a requirement of the Wa State Growth Management Act, and expressly promised in its own Downtown Development Project Charter (approved 2 years ago), the City repeatedly thwarts “early and continuous” public engagement. “Early and continuous” never occurs. Two-way conversation is non-existent. The community of Blaine is literally kept in the dark and prevented from participating in the planning process to develop their community. Public Hearings appear pointless, occurring long after decisions are made. Elementary planning work is abandoned and not completed There is no Development Plan

My October 6 letter to city council : Since January, Sonia Hurt has ignored evidence provided by Blaine citizens of official corruption by Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) and Blaine City Council. Indeed, Councilwoman Hurt has gone along with Mayor Steward's corruption every step of the way. Hurt's October Salishan Newsletter comments, pretending to encourage public participation in planning downtown development—after she already approved fast-tracking Central Business District (CBD) zoning amendments for developers--are thus disingenuous.  By positing the CBD redevelopment choice as between prosperity by allowing height increases versus views that do nothing for commerce, Hurt ignores the fact that she and the rest of the council and commission received several public comments about the harm to commerce and tourism development from privatizing all on-street public parking for condo developers, which she supported.  Hurt's faux concerns about public participation

My September 26 letter to city council : Your devotion to the desires of developers at the expense of our community comes through loud and clear by your remarks in The Northern Light. Councilman Hill's frustration with a minor delay by the planning commission in voting on the Central Business District upzoning that financially benefits him as well as Gurdeep Bains—both of whom have engaged in illegal self-dealing by voting for the upzoning— exemplifies the degree of corruption that has become the norm at Blaine City Hall under Mayor Steward and Development Director Alex Wenger.  Illustrating the lack of independence at the planning commission, which should function as citizen oversight of public officials rather than puppets of Mr. Wenger, Mayor Steward suggested the council meet with the commission to discuss their visions of development in Blaine. Meanwhile, the visions of the community—shut down by Mayor Steward in February when she ended public comment at city council meetings—