Letter to Attorney General re Gurdeep Bains

In the October 24, 2022 Request For Council Action regarding appointment of members to the Central Business District Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, it states, "The intent of this Committee is to have representatives made up of downtown property owners and business owners, developers and architects, finance and real estate, neighboring community groups, and representatives of downtown economic development organizations." There is no mention of holding educational workshops for the community to become educated and involved as required under the Growth Management Act (GMA) mandate of "early, continuous, and inclusive public participation throughout the planning process." The process from the outset thus violated GMA.


Under his Qualifications Related to the Position on his application for the advisory committee, Gurdeep Bains states he has 10+ years in property development and "I own 3 sites in downtown Blaine which I am trying to develop but can't due the current prohibitive zoning." 

At the June 6, 2023, meeting of the renamed Downtown Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, Gurdeep Bains seconded a motion to recommend to the city council that parking requirements for downtown developers like himself be reduced, and moved to change the Blaine Municipal Code to increase building height limits downtown, making his $2million investment in the Central Business District much more profitable. This was a crime the Washington Attorney General needs to investigate.

In my August 24, 2024 Betrayal of Public Trust letter to the City of Blaine, I observe that the Blaine Planning Commission has been "colluding with CDS director Alex Wenger on Central Business District (CBD) rezoning of parking and building heights in violation of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) regarding public participation, consideration of alternatives, and consideration of cumulative environmental effects." More to the point, I remarked that, "the Downtown Advisory Committee--under CDS instruction--morphed from an advisory group to a voting body that recommended changes to development regulations that financially benefit members of the committee." That in itself created a conflict of interest scenario.

Reading further,
" I have noted the SEPA process administered by Mr. Wenger did not allow the public to offer and consider alternatives to the developers' vision, only parking and building heights. There has not been a single visioning town hall to discuss redevelopment of downtown; only the developers' agenda. The environmental impacts of this agenda weren't even raised."


"The Washington State General Accounting Office audit report for the City of Blaine for 2023 notes that the Revised Code of Washington requires that you promptly publish and make available to the public the minutes of meetings. Blaine Community Development Services withheld the minutes of the June 6, 2023, meeting of the Downtown Advisory Committee where they voted to approve the developers' agenda of reducing parking requirements and increasing building heights for nine months, only releasing it when pressed by me. All other meetings of the committee were apparently published promptly, but the one where developer Gurdeep Bains, builder Scott Meaker, and Blaine Planning Commissioner Kevin Owens voted on code amendments that financially benefit Bains, Meaker, and Blaine City Councilman Mike Hill were concealed."

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