Whatcom Falls neighborhood residents sign in at the first neighborhood meeting since 2006. | photo courtesy of Clayton Petree
Benjamin Woodard | NN
Community-wide scars may be finally healing in the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood as a neighborhood committee sutures old disagreement between residents and the City of Bellingham.
About 40 people voted on April 27 to revive the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association, which had dissolved nearly four years ago. The vote kicked off a lengthy process for neighborhood residents to set up bylaws, appoint board members and become a Washington state nonprofit organization.
“To me, that shows that some of the wounds are healing,” said Linda Stewart, Neighborhood and Special Projects Coordinator for the city. “There are folks who are willing to start over again and that is very encouraging to me.”
The Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association dissolved in late 2006 after the City of Bellingham approved some development in the area. Hard feelings about the decision sparked unrest and disunity among the board members.
During the April 27 meeting, residents voted on a temporary chair for the association and a committee to form the neighborhood’s bylaws. The bylaws will govern how the association interacts with the city and neighborhood residents.
Now, 22 of the 24 neighborhoods in Bellingham have a neighborhood association — or one in the works. The Meridian and Western Washington University Neighborhoods do not.
In early February, neighborhood resident Clayton Petree said his concerns about the lack of a crosswalk at the intersection of Electric Avenue, Birch Street and the Whatcom Falls Park entrance moved him to ask the city how he could be a representative on the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Committee. The committee meets once a month with a representative from every neighborhood, but the catch is that a neighborhood must have an association in order to be represented.
Petree, 36, has lived in Bellingham most of his life. He said he felt the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood was underrepresented.
“The most important thing is that everybody can feel like they have somewhere to go to talk about their issues,” Petree said. “If the neighborhood decides to go do something that I don’t necessarily agree with, at least I had my say.”
A solution hinges on an association
Petree was first involved with a neighborhood association in the Lettered Streets Neighborhood. He said the association was up-to-date and communicated with its neighbors. For the last three years he has lived in the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood.
Richard Etter, temporary chair of the unofficial Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association, moved from Utah to Bellingham two years ago. He attended the monthly Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Committee meetings, received training from the city about neighborhood associations and used his 30-year not-for-profit administrative experience to organize the first Whatcom Falls Neighborhood meeting in about four years.
He said his motivation was to gain representation at the city level because every neighborhood is fighting for city resources.
“There is only so much to go around — and right now there is not nearly as much as there used to be — so for our neighborhood not to have representation means that some important safety things for our neighborhood might not get addressed,” Etter said. “It was a no-brainer for me.”
The city pushed for two years to form an association
Stewart said she was in contact with people from the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood for two years before the April 27 meeting.
“It’s been difficult for me to find, in the last [two years], people working together across the neighborhood,” she said.
Stewart said she found disagreements and hard feelings between residents in all parts of the neighborhood that stalled the success of a neighborhood association. From the previous debacle with the city, she said many residents were not ready to come back together as an association, but the recent meeting suggested a renewal of relationships.
During the meeting, Cam Couch, Raymond Street resident and member of the old association, spoke about concerns over a new association following the same track as the latter.
Discussion about development in the neighborhood came up multiple times.
“I have lived in this neighborhood for 56 years, and I am 56 years old,” Couch said during the meeting. “If I had it my way, half of you wouldn’t be here today.”
Stewart said the whole process of becoming an association might take six to eight months.
“I think they are on the right track,” she said.
If the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association makes it through the process, they will receive $500 from the city per year to aid in such association-related expenditures as renting meeting places, printing and distributing newsletters, registering a domain name and erecting neighborhood signs, Stewart said. Last year, the amount was $1,000, but the city has cut back amid the recession.
A fresh neighborhood pulls together a fresh association
On March 6, 2009, The King Mountain Neighborhood, east of Guide Meridian Road near Bellis Fair Mall, was annexed by the City of Bellingham, according to a city press release.
Stewart was heavily involved with forming the King Mountain Neighborhood Association.
Stewart said a unified group of people pushed the city to annex the neighborhood, and afterward pushed for a neighborhood association to gain representation at the city level. With a unified group already in place, it took them eight months.
She said the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood bylaws committee will look at bylaws from many neighborhoods, including the King Mountain Neighborhood, while constructing its own.
Also, an independent, city-contracted neighborhood association consultant will be sitting in on the neighborhood’s bylaws committee meetings to offer advice.
Communication and community involvement is a first priority for Etter and the bylaws committee. He said he wants to take his time forming the bylaws, so that they don’t fail in serving the community.
“I’ve seen it in other associations, the leadership falls to four or five people or even a dozen people, but they are the same people over and over and over again,” Etter said. “After a while, it atrophies.”
Neighborhood concerns voiced by residents at the April 27 neighborhood meeting:
- Raymond Street connecting to Lopez Street
- Lack of crosswalk at the intersection of Birch Street, Electric Avenue and the Whatcom Falls Park entrance.
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