Meridian/Cordata Neighborhood Association remains undecided on coal train debate.

After a presentation advocating against building a dry-goods export terminal at Cherry Point, Meridian/Cordata Neighborhood Association co-President Beverly Jacobs announced the association would not take a side on the coal train debate until members heard both sides of the story.

David Culver from Protect Whatcom gave the presentation at the Meridian/Cordata Neighborhood Association meeting on Feb. 14.

Culver’s aim was to gain support for the movement against the Gateway Pacific export terminal at Cherry Point by highlighting the potential negative health and environmental impacts that could come along with building the terminal and using it to ship coal to China.

Jacobs said she invited SSA Marine, the company behind the Cherry Point project, to speak at a neighborhood association meeting in September. The association will not make a decision until they hear from SSA Marine, she said.

“Mr. Culver gave a good presentation tonight but it’s only one side of the story,” Jacobs said. “We, as a neighborhood association, will not endorse one side or the other until we can evaluate what both sides have to say. [Culver’s] presentation did a good job of highlighting some of the environmental and health risks of the project but we also need to hear about the economic benefits and what SSA Marine is going to do to offset their impact.”

The terminal could have economic benefits for Whatcom County by creating 4,400 jobs during construction and 1,250 ongoing jobs after the facility is completed, according to Gateway Pacific.

Those jobs could help families in the Cordata neighborhood who are struggling to find employment or want to work for higher salaries, Jacobs said.

Culver said the economic benefits that the terminal could present do not outweigh the health and environmental issues that would come along with it.

The first issue is with the trains, Culver said.

If the proposed terminal gets the green light, this would mean an additional 18 trains loaded with coal passing through Bellingham daily, he said.

Nine trains would come through Bellingham to drop the coal off at Cherry Point. They would then turn around and pass through Bellingham again for their return trip to the coal source in Powder River Basin, Wyoming.

The trains could affect both the quality of life and quality of health in the community, Culver said.

Values of properties near the train tracks could fall due to the increased noise caused by the additional trains and respiratory illnesses such as asthma could become more common due to the coal dust coming off the uncovered trains, he said.

Culvers claim is supported by Whatcom Docs, a group of approximately 200 licensed medical practitioners throughout Whatcom County who have banded together in opposition of the terminal, saying it could lead to an increase in respiratory conditions, cancer, and other ailments.

The additional trains would also cause traffic buildups at railway crossings that would not only be cumbersome, but dangerous, Culver said.

“Imagine that your child is in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital and the ambulance has to stop and wait for a 1.5 mile long train to pass by,” I know it’s not a pleasant thought, but unfortunately it could become a reality if [the terminal] is built.”

Culver also highlighted some of the environmental risks that are associated with building the terminal.

One of the environmental concerns involves an additional 487 ships per year coming through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into Cherry Point, he said.

While the ships themselves would cause pollution through their exhaust, the effects of a ship spilling its contents into the Puget Sound need to be evaluated to assess the risk to the marine ecosystem, he said.

Ships could also introduce invasive species from China through ballast water taken into the ships hull at port to keep the ship stable out at sea, Culver said. Regulations mandate that this water be dumped before ships enter the Puget Sound but if the seas are rough they are allowed to enter with it and dump it at their destination port, in this case, Cherry Point.

Invasive species introduced by ballast water have unpredictable effects on ecosystems and are often costly to clean up and manage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

After Culvers presentation, he encouraged the meeting attendees to get involved by voicing their concerns during the comment and review process.

To build the terminal, SSA Marine must first obtain two permits from Whatcom County in addition to two permits from the federal government.

After they apply for the county permits, the public will be allowed to highlight their concerns on what should be evaluated when the environmental impact is assessed.

The floor should be open for comment mid-to-late spring depending on when SSA Marine files for permits, Culver said. This is the best way for neighborhood residents to have their concerns voiced and become a part of the movement against the Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, he said.

Some say proposed plans to ease traffic flow at I5/Bakerview interchange could make things worse.

Traffic in the north end of Bellingham has long been a problem, but some people say a plan that intends to alleviate traffic buildup on the I-5/ West Bakerview Road interchange could make matters worse.

The project would ease traffic at the interchange by adding new lanes and modifying existing ones.

It’s a collaboration that includes the City of Bellingham, Washington State Department of Transportation, the Port of Bellingham and various other public and private stakeholders.

Plans to ease traffic along the I-5/West Bakerview Road interchange could help potential customers access retailers, but some people are worried it will cause more traffic buildups to other sections of West Bakerview Road.

Cordata resident Don MacDough said traffic on Bakerview is one of his biggest frustrations with living in the north end of Bellingham and has gotten worse over the years.

“It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, Bakerview always gets backed up and Meridian is like a parking lot,” he said.

The project is still in its early stages but will be designed and have its impacts weighed over the course of the year, said project engineer Shane Oden.

At this point, there has not been an assessment modeling how traffic will be impacted at other intersections but it is likely there could be some buildup, he said.

“Traffic is no different than water, it’s going to follow the path of least resistance,” Oden said. “Naturally If you resolve traffic congestion in one spot there is a likelihood that congestion to a certain degree would occur elsewhere because you’re moving that volume of traffic further down.”

However, by the time traffic gets to other intersections along West Bakerview Road and Airport Drive it will be more dispersed, Oden said. Between the traffic dispersing out among multiple roads and strategic planning of traffic lights, additional traffic buildup along those roads shouldn’t be too much of an issue, he said.

The proposed construction is intended to help mitigate traffic buildups along the interchange which block access to local streets and businesses but could do more harm than good, said Nick Zaferatos, a Western Washington University professor specializing in urban planning and development.

Projects such as this are often quick-fix solutions to big problems that needed more initial planning to begin with, Zaferatos said.

The reason traffic on the arterial roadways in the north such as Bakerview and Meridian is so bad is because of poor planning, he said. The region was zoned for commercial retail purposes but little thought was given to the infrastructure that needed to be in place to support the high volumes of traffic that those retailers would experience, he said.

Similar projects in other neighborhoods have had disastrous results, Zaferatos said. The intersection at Sunset Drive and James Street is a good example of an area that was modified to alleviate traffic concerns but turned previously pedestrian friendly area into an area with swaths of concrete built for cars, he said.

“Traffic engineers simply want to make cars happy,” Zaferatos said. Reconciliation needs to be done between the continued emphasis on car-flow planning and our attempt to humanize the Bellingham community. The latter objective seems to always lose out.

Oden said managing and modifying existing infrastructure are common problems when it comes to rezoning for new development. Planners take these considerations into effect when rezoning and utilize things like the Transportation Improvement Program that looks for potential issues.

According to the plan, traffic at the interchange is expected to increase 10.4 percent during peak hours by 2015 and that number is expected to climb to 48.6 percent by 2030.

The proposed plan is not the ideal solution for the traffic problem happening at the interchange but it’s currently the best, most cost effective option, Oden said. A full rebuild of the interchange is what would be needed to most effectively cope with the predicted 2030 traffic increase but at $30 million, it’s an option that is simply not financially feasible, he said.

“The design we’re putting forward now was not meant to resolve any long term transportation issues that that intersection sees,” Oden said. “It was meant to alleviate the immediate impacts of current transportation issues.”

City of Bellingham struggles to find funds to complete Cordata Park

When Julie Guy co-founded the Meridian/Cordata Neighborhood Association in 2005 she had one main goal in mind: to push the city to provide parks and trails for residents in the Cordata neighborhood.

Today, that goal stands half-fulfilled. The City of Bellingham purchased a 20-acre parcel of land for Cordata Park but as the economy took a downward turn and funds dried up, so did prospects for development.

“We’re here in 2012 and we still don’t have a single playground or picnic area that families can go to in the north end,” Guy said.

When planning for the site began back in 2007, the economy was still good in good shape, Guy said. Development was initially supposed to take place between 2010 and 2012, she said. However, since then, the city has been having a hard time coming up with funding for parks.

“When the mayor has to start cutting the budget things like parks and playgrounds are low priority against service like fire, police, and education,” Guy said.

The project started when Guy and members of the neighborhood association approached the City of Bellingham in 2005 with requests for funds and resources.

“I moved [to Bellingham] from Alaska, took a look around and thought, ‘where are the parks, where are the trails?’” Guy said. “There are lots of parks in the south end, we need parks up here too.”

Guy realized that under the state Growth Management Act, the city must provide services including parks for neighborhoods as their populations expand. She used this as leverage in her campaign to get a park in Cordata.

“We had to continuously work and finally, after we had been campaigning for two years the mayor found the money to buy one park,” she said.

In 2007, the city approved $1 million from the real estate excise tax to buy the 20-acre parcel of land for the park from Trillium Corp.

As the city started to develop a master plan for the park, it invited community members to become part of the process by outlining their goals for the site, said Design and Development Manager Gina Austin.

The final master plan includes restrooms, picnic areas, trails, a play area, a skateboard park, and areas of the park set aside for wetland preservation.

The project is estimated to cost between $3 million and $4 million total, according to the Cordata Park Master Plan.

The city spent around $1 million doing environmental assessment on the site and in 2010 and 2011 finished developing a half-mile trail through the park, Austin said. It was at this point that the city started to run out of funding for the project, she said.

Projects such as this one are funded in a variety of ways including real estate excise taxes, park impact fees, greenway levies, and state and federal grants.

The state of the economy factors into why this project is currently at a standstill, Austin said. When a person or company buys and develops land, they pay into the real estate excise tax and park impact fees which help fund these projects. With the economy the way it is, there’s little current development happening and as a result, there is less money to build parks with, she said.

The city has been working on applying for grants and brainstorming ideas for how to generate funds for the park, she said.

In addition to the lack in funds for developing the park, there is currently no road that goes out to the land where the parking lot for the park is planned. To begin further developing the park, Horton Road needs to be extended to the land where the parking lot will be situated, Austin said.

Bellingham Public Works is currently working with contracted consultants to evaluate how much state-protected wetlands will be affected by the development of the road.

Once the road is complete, the city can continue development on the park, funds permitting.

Guy said she would like to see the park finished within the next five or six years but she’s not sure how realistic that goal is.

Without the road to the site in place and limited funding, it’s difficult to say when the project will be complete, Austin said.