Old Town Flats

The Lettered Streets Neighborhood will be getting a new residential building in the Old Town district starting in January 2016.

An application was submitted by Grinstad and Wagner Architects to rebuild a 3-4 story residential building on F Street, the first of many bigger buildings suggested for the area. If approved by the city, the project will start renovations in January and continue through January of 2017.

The Old Town District is one of the oldest areas in Bellingham and was the core industrial center when the city was first founded. Recently it is facing a shift toward residential houses and a focus on making better use of the land.  

“A new building will bring more liveliness into the area and hopefully reduce crime rates,” Jackie Lynch, a city planner for the city of Bellingham said. “It will be more fun to live in the area as it begins to become more populated.”

The development will have access to transit a short walk away, and the high density living is beneficial to the environment because it creates less sprawl and pollution from long distances of travel.

The town of Bellingham is currently experiencing a 3 percent growth per year, but the vacancy rate of the town is only 1 percent leaving many residents without proper housing.

“Additional residences are always good,” Lynch said. “The cost of rent and ownership is going up so more housing very beneficial to the neighborhood.”

As the first large building in the area, the Old Town Flats building will serve as a model for the rest of the area, as residents and city planners alike hope to bring more redevelopment into the run-down buildings.

The Lettered Streets Neighborhood is known for having historical significance in every building, whether it be Arts and Crafts style, Queen Anne or a more modern look like the Old Town Flats is proposed to be.

“Residents are worried about the style of the building and how it will fit into the area,” Jelena Sacharoff, Chairperson of the Lettered Streets Neighborhood Association said. “We care about the way we are represented in new architecture.”

Every new building that is proposed into the neighborhood is highly scrutinized for its overall look and how well the building blends in with the surrounding area. This particular block of the neighborhood is one of the most diverse, containing an aspect of every different design style along each side of the road.

The building is required to “conform with the Neighborhood Plan goals, design standards in the Old Town Overlay District and commercial zoning regulations” according to the State Environmental Policy Act checklist.

Other concerns with the building include noise, and view blockage for the condominium that sits just uphill of the proposed development. The SEPA checklist filed by architect Fred Wagner and city planner Jackie Lynch acknowledges an altered or obstructed view from the apartments on G Street, although the building height is set at only four stories to maintain the views of the bay from the top floor of Westview Condominiums.

 Parking is also a big concern for the residents because multi-car families did not exist when many of the houses were being built and the space is limited especially for visitors to the area.

“The conversions and new construction made parking difficult because no off street parking was considered in 1900 and the space in front of homes was assumed parking for occupants when they started buying cars,” said Earl Hutchins, a 29 year resident of the neighborhood. “We are short of parking, new buildings need more parking.”

Lynch addressed this issue by claiming that the new building would be built with both underground and above ground parking in order to make room for more residents to park their cars.

As the city expands, and becomes more desirable, more housing is necessary and the Old Town Flats will soon join the historic Lettered Streets Neighborhood as the first of many new designs in the area.

The application for the design review is in process and all residents are urged to participate in the discussion of the proposed building.