Blaine Confidential

Comprehensive Plans under Growth Management must include Critical Areas Protection (e.g., city aquifer) and Sustainable Economic Development (i.e., downtown recovery). The developer-driven requests for rezoning properties above the aquifer and downtown were fast-tracked separately from the legally required Comprehensive Plan process in order to avoid community discussion.  The Central Business District Project Charter must be sublimated to the Comprehensive Plan now underway as an element of Growth Management. Since the Project Charter touts a "robust" public involvement that was undermined by official misconduct, it should be abandoned entirely as a failure. The 2024 work plan to implement the developers' requests--presented by Community Development Services and adopted by Blaine City Council—is thus invalid.

One of the reasons for "early, continuous, and inclusive public involvement throughout the planning process" being required under the Growth Management Act is these give public officials the opportunity to hear the community's vision for their future and to consider alternative means of achieving that vision. Community visioning under Growth Management typically begins with an orientation to the Comprehensive Plan process followed by numerous town halls where open two-way discussions are hosted and facilitated by professional planners. Alternatives to the developers' vision now being railroaded by Community Development Services include preserving the downtown views as presented to the city during the 2014 Comprehensive Plan ten-year update by Salishan Neighborhood Association. This proposal, which was supported by the city council at the time, was never raised as an alternative for consideration in 2024. Nor was the proposal I recommended to seek grants for a communit...

In the crime rationalization supporting the downtown rezoning amendments , Community Development Services (CDS) emphasizes the token gestures to public participation where the public could comment on decisions already made by CDS within a restrictive framework limited to proposals by developers. Placing legal notices in the Bellingham Herald that no one reads and holding open houses during workday work hours where there is no two-way community discussion after the fact is termed "robust" public participation by CDS. CDS director Alex Wenger and his boss City Manager Mike Harmon would like us to quibble over this rationalization rather than focus on the crimes the city committed in the process. 

In 2014, Salishan Neighborhood Association persuaded Blaine City Council to support water views downtown by exploring the purchase of vacant lots on the west side of Peace Portal. Kathleen Capson and Glen Pentland were invited by the mayor to do a presentation from SNA in 2014 on saving water views. In 2024, a new Blaine City Council is intent on giving away the views to private condo developers while dumping their tenant vehicles on the street where they will displace tourists and shoppers. 

For residents of Blaine who care about our community's future, I recommend reading the  letter from the Salishan Neighborhood Association Downtown Committee to Blaine City Council. Those who wish to learn more can benefit from reading the report to our city council by former Downtown Advisory Committee member Glen Pentland.  My letter to the editor at The Northern Light rounds things out. In his response to criticism of the downtown planning fiasco , proposing a 72' tall wall of condos on the west side of Peace Portal that will consume all on-street parking, Community Development Services director Alex Wenger said,  “We were just trying to spur growth downtown with this proposal. I’m not sure how much we’ll really change things. I think this will make it a little easier to develop downtown.” 

[my 5/15/24 letter to city council ] One year ago, while other cities such as La Conner were brainstorming with their citizens on how to welcome public participation in the 2024 Comprehensive Plan ten-year update, the City of Blaine was conspiring how to keep us in the dark until you could unlawfully rezone properties for major developments downtown. With the help of The Northern Light, you have been largely successful in that. Since February 12, 2024, Blaine has been the only city in Whatcom County that forbids oral public comment. Imposed without notice by mayoral fiat, the timing coincided with increasing public interest in the process by which the City of Blaine is updating our Comprehensive Plan in violation of the Growth Management Act.  Were we to have a voice, our community could learn that "early, continuous, and inclusive public participation" is required under Growth Management, and the City of Blaine has intentionally violated the law. In my letter to the Blaine P...

Kathleen Capson's letter to Community Development Services  about downtown parking is worth reading. Same with her letter to Blaine Planning Commission . Glen Pentland identifies critical missed steps . My letters address  privatized parking and  recall or resign .

5/7/2024 You have a right and duty under the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) to refuse to recommend comprehensive plan text amendments for downtown zoning and development regulations due to the unlawful and unethical conduct of Community Development Services (CDS), the mayor and city council in bringing the parking and building height proposals before you. Under GMA, the process is everything, and the City of Blaine has intentionally violated the process. You have the opportunity to set a new standard of official conduct in Blaine despite the lack of a code of conduct. You can say that the highly manipulated process that began with two planning commissioners improperly voting on text amendments as members of the downtown advisory committee (DAC) that was unlawfully transformed into a quasi-official voting body is not acceptable.  That body was in turn manipulated by the mayor, city manager, and CDS director who told them what to do. Then, without any town hall meetings...

My May 5, 2024, letter to Blaine City Council: Mayor Steward should resign or be recalled from public office for misfeasance, malfeasance, and violation of her oath of office. Freedom of speech, public participation, and the rule of law have all been sacrificed under her foolish mission to hand the keys to the city to a handful of developers. This preoccupation has been accompanied by an intentional neglect to convene community meetings to define and implement an economic recovery plan consistent with the goal of tourism development. With the recent announcement of a 33% budget cut for 2024, one might think this is the overwhelming priority, but the last four years under Mayor Steward have been characterized by backroom deals, conflicts of interest, and officially facilitated self-dealing. Her fool's mission has brought Blaine to the brink of bankruptcy, putting our future at risk. It is time for her to go.