Bellingham Adopts Infill Toolkit
On Monday Night, the City Council adopted the Infill Toolkit Housing Ordinance. As discussed in my earlier posts, the Ordinance allows for new infill housing forms, including townhouses, cottage houses, carriage houses, attached dwelling units,triplexes, courtyard housing, etc.
The infill housing forms, however, will not be automatically permitted in any single family neighborhoods, except where such neighborhoods already allow for some multi-family development. The new housing forms are also not permitted within the Lake Whatcom Watershed.
Anyone wanting to use any of the infill toolkit housing forms within a single family neighborhood would need to apply for a comprehensive plan amendment and/or rezone. This type of legislative process requires numerous public hearings and meetings and is quite onerous in terms of time and expense.
Use of the infill housing forms is allowed in areas already zoned for multifamily use. Except that due to neighborhood opposition, the application of the toolkit is limited in areas zoned Residential Multi-Duplex (parts of the Sunnlyand neighborhood for example) such that only small houses, cottages, detached accessory units, carriage houses and duplexes will be allowed.
While this is a first step in promoting urban infill, it remains to be seen whether such a limited application of the infill toolkit can actually achieve the City’s goal of urban densification and housing innovation.