Whatcom County Council Adopted May 24, 2011 Updated January 2014
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Whatcom County Council Adopted May 24, 2011 Updated January 2014 Acknowledgements May 2011 Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen Whatcom County Council (2011) Barbara Brenner Sam Crawford Kathy Kershner Bill Knutzen Tony Larson Kenn Mann Carl Weimer Whatcom County Planning Commission (2010) John Belisle Michelle Luke Rabel Burdge Jean Melious Rod Erickson Jeff Rainey Gary Honcoop Mary Beth Teigrob John Lesow Foothills Subarea Plan Advisory Committee Richard Banel Business Community Phil Cloward, Vice Chair Forestry William (Bill)Coleman Nooksack Tribe Jan Eskola At Large Gary Gehling, Chair Rural Gerald Kern Columbia Valley UGA/Kendall Beth Morgan Columbia Valley UGA/Kendall Amy Mower Maple Falls area Norma Otto Columbia Valley UGA/Kendall Lou Piotrowski Glacier area Cynthia Purdy Deming area Former Members: Alan Seid Sean Wilson i Whatcom County Planning and Development Services Staff J.E. “Sam” Ryan, Director David Stalheim, Former Director Roxanne Michael, Long Range Planning Manager Hal Hart, Former Director Matt Aamot, Senior Planner/Project Manager Dennis Rhodes, Former Assistant Director Sarah Watts, GIS Specialist III Linda Peterson, Former Planning Division Manager John Everett, Former Senior Becky Boxx, Coordinator Planner/Transportation Pam Brown, Division Secretary Sharon Digby, Former Extra Help Penny Harrison, Former Extra Help Washington State Department of Transportation Todd Carlson, Planning and Engineering Services Tim Hostetler, Former Assistant Planning Manager Manager Roland Storme, Development Services Manager Elizabeth Sjostrom, Highway System Planner Michael Koidal, Transportation Data Engineer Consultants Studio Cascade, Inc. ECONorthwest ii Table of Contents 1 Introduction and Population Projections 1-1 Background 1-1 Existing Land Uses 1-4 Population Forecast 1-4 2 Land Use 2-1 Land Use History 2-1 Essential Public Facilities 2-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 2-2 Future Demand and Supply 2-2 Planning Context 2-3 Vision 2-4 Land Use Planning Issues 2-6 Planning Concept 2-7 Land Use Scenarios 2-8 Adopted Land Use Scenario 2-8 Lands for Public Purpose 2-16 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 2-17 3 Housing 3-1 Existing Conditions 3-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 3-2 Housing Issues 3-2 Planning Concept 3-4 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 3-5 4 County Capital Facilities 4-1 Existing Facilities 4-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 4-2 Capital Facilities Issues 4-2 Future Needs 4-2 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 4-5 5 Utilities 5-1 Existing Conditions 5-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 5-4 Utilities Issues 5-4 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 5-5 6 Transportation 6-1 Movement 6-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 6-3 Level-of-Service Standards 6-3 Planning Issues 6-3 Planning Concept 6-3 Proposed New Roads and Facilities 6-5 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 6-6 7 Economics 7-1 Background 7-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 7-6 Planning Issues 7-6 Planning Concept 7-6 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 7-7 8 Resource Lands 8-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 8-1 Planning Issues 8-2 Planning Concept 8-2 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 8-2 iii 9 Recreation 9-1 Existing Facilities 9-1 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 9-2 Planning Issues 9-3 Planning Concept 9-3 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 9-3 10 Community Facilities, Schools, Sheriff, Fire Protections, Emergency Medical Services and 10-1 Solid Waste Management Existing Facilities 10-1 Proposed Facilities 10-2 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 10-3 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 10-4 11 Environment 11-1 Surface Water 11-1 Ground Water 11-4 Plants and Wildlife 11-5 Geologic Hazards 11-7 Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan Goals and Policies 11-8 Planning Concept 11-8 Foothills Subarea Plan Goals and Policies 11-9 12 Columbia Valley Urban Growth Area (UGA) 12-1 Issues 12-1 Community Workshops 12-1 Planning Concept 12-2 Goals and Policies 12-9 13 Kendall Rural Community Master Plan 13-1 Kendall Workshop 13-1 Vision Assessment – Today, Tomorrow, Means 13-2 Assessment of Opportunities and Constraints 13-3 Design Objectives – Prioritized 13-5 Columbia Valley UGA Workshop 13-7 Subarea Plan Directives 13-9 Existing Conditions 13-9 Master Plan Design Program Objectives 13-10 Master Plan 13-11 Policy References 13-13 14 Public Participation Program 14-1 Workshops 14-1 Draft Plan Rollout 14-2 Foothills Subarea Plan Advisory Committee 14-2 Questionnaire 14-2 Environmental Review 14-3 10-Year UGA Review 14-3 Planning Commission 14-3 Website 14-3 Policies 14-3 15 Implementation 15-1 Projects 15-1 Implementation Tasks 15-6 Implementation Committees 15-7 Appendix A – Bibliography A-1 iv Index of Tables Table 1.1 – 2006 Foothills Population Estimate 1-2 Table 1.2 – Occupancy by Location, 2006 1-3 Table 1.3 – Acres and Percentage of Foothills Subarea by Land Use, 2007 1-4 Table 1.4 – ECONorthwest Proposed Population Forecasts 1-5 Table 1.5 – Foothills Subarea Plan adopted population forecast 1-5 Table 3.1 – Dwelling Unit Analysis, Foothills Subarea and Whatcom County 3-3 Table 3.2 – 2006 Dwelling Unit Estimates 3-3 Table 3.3 – Projected Subarea Dwelling Units by Location, 2006-2029 3-4 Table 4.1 – Existing County Facilities 4-1 Table 4.2 – Proposed County Capital Facilities 4-4 Table 5.1 – Additional water connections to serve the UGA 5-2 Table 7.1 – Covered employment in the Foothills Subarea by sector and industry, 2005 7-2 Table 7.2 – Employment forecast by land use type, Foothills Subarea 7-4 Table 8.1 – Resource lands in the Foothills Subarea, 8-1 Table 9.1 – Existing Park Facilities 9-1 Table 11.1 – 303(d), Category 5 listed water bodies in the subarea and associated nonpoint 11-3 pollution source Table 12.1 – Relevant policies for the Columbia Valley UGA from other chapters 12-9 Table 13.1 – Vision Assessment 13-2 Table 13.2 – Opportunities and Constraints 13-3 Table 13.3 – Relevant policies for the Kendall Rural Community from other chapters 13-13 Table 14.1 – Relevant policies for public participation from other chapters 14-3 Table 15.1 – Implementation Projects (Candidates for County Funding) 15-2 Table 15.2 – Implementation Projects (Candidates for non-County Funding) 15-4 v Index of Figures Figure 13.1 – Photo from Kendall workshop field exercises 13-4 Figure 13.2 – Design concepts generated by Kendall workshop participants 13-6 Figure 13.3 – Conceptual connectivity between Kendall and the Columbia Valley town 13-7 center Figure 13.4 – Oblique aerial illustrating Kendall’s relationship to the Columbia Valley 13-8 Figure 13.5 – Aerial photograph of Kendall 13-9 Figure 13.6 – Existing building footprints in Kendall 13-11 Figure 13.7 – Kendall Master Plan Concept 13-12 Index of Maps Map 2.1: Deming 2-10 Map 2.2: Welcome 2-11 Map 2.3: Columbia Valley 2-12 Map 2.4: Maple Falls 2-13 Map 2.5: Glacier 2-14 Map 3.1: Housing – Housing Types 3-6 Map 4.1: County Capital Facilities 4-6 Map 6.1: Transportation – State/County Road Functional Class 6-10 Map 6.2: Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) Transit Route 6-11 Map 8.1: Designated Resource Lands 8-4 Map 10.1: Community Facilities 10-6 Map 11.1: Critical Areas Article III – Geologically Hazardous Areas (GHA 11-11 Map 11.2: Critical Areas Article III – Seismic Hazard Areas (GHA2) – Liquefaction 11-12 Map 11.3: Critical Areas Article III – Seismic Hazard Areas (GHA2) – Potential for Enhanced 11-13 Ground Shaking Map 11.4: Critical Areas Article III – Volcanic Hazards (GHA4) 11-14 Map 11.5: Critical Areas Article IV – Frequently Flooded Areas 11-15 Map 11.6: Critical Areas Article V – Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas 11-16 Map 11.7: Critical Areas Article VI – Wetlands 11-17 Map 11.8: Critical Areas Article VII – Wildlife Habitat Conservation Areas (HCA) 11-18 Map 11.9: Critical Areas Article VII – Fish Habitat Conservation Areas 11-19 vi Foothills Subarea Plan, Chapter 1 – May 2011 1 Introduction and Population Projections This subarea plan updates and replaces the November 1988 Foothills Subarea component of the Whatcom County Comprehensive Land Use Plan. That 1988 plan was prepared before the 1990 adoption of the Growth Management Act (GMA), and is now more than 20 years old. While the plan has been an appropriate tool for the direction and regulation of development in the Foothills area, it is now out of date and must be replaced with a new subarea plan to address shifts in population and changes in the regulatory context over the past 20 years. The current comprehensive plan for Whatcom County was updated in 2009. It directs the County to review and update its subarea plans to ensure they are compliant with the new comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan is intended to guide growth in unincorporated areas for the next 20 years and it contains descriptions of existing conditions related to land use, the physical environment, transportation, and capital facilities and utilities. The Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan addresses the requirements of the Growth Management Act (GMA), the planning goals of the GMA (RCW 36.70A.020), mandatory plan elements (RCW 36.70A.070), and the current County Wide Planning Policies. The GMA authorizes adoption of subarea plans that are consistent with the county-wide comprehensive plan, but does not require such subarea plans. Whatcom County has chosen to meet GMA requirements primarily through the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan and associated development regulations.