Stop the removal of 327 mature trees in Bellingham!

To the City of Bellingham and its Hearing Examiner

Whatcom Million Trees Project -- Petition To Save Trees
This petition urges the City's Hearing Examiner to require modifications in the proposed 68-unit infill housing development by Bellingham Golf & Country Club. The 4-acre property is located along the Meridian Street side of BGCC, very near Cornwall Park.

If approved as currently designed, this project will remove 327 trees, most of which are 70-100 year old native conifers. These trees are similar in age and size to those in nearby Cornwall Park.

Mature native trees like these are significantly disappearing in our city. Yet they're increasingly essential in our new climate era to enhance our community's resilience to floods and extreme heat, and to provide the many other benefits that tree provide (i.e. clean air, noise buffering, psychological & quality of life improvements, and well-established improved cardiovascular and other health outcomes.)

By eliminating from the proposed project just eight 2,215 SF duplexes that require double the site area of each of the other sixty units, for example, a revised site layout can save many more mature trees yet still provide substantial infill housing for our community.

Please sign if...
-- you believe infill housing should occur but not compromise the livability of our city, and
-- you care about our local trees and the many benefits they bring to our community!
Thank you!

Note: We deeply care about the privacy of your personal info. Maintaining the highest ethics is very important to us. Your name and email will not be shared with ANY other organization. When the advisory petition is sent to its intended recipient, all names and emails will be partially obscured.
Sponsored by
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Whatcom Million Trees Project
Bellingham, WA

To: To the City of Bellingham and its Hearing Examiner
From: [Your Name]

Re: BGCC's proposed 68-unit development on Meridian St.

Although Bellingham needs more housing due to strong demand, the proposed 68-unit development on Meridian St. does not meet the spirit or intent of urban infill development which should feature "more efficient use of the remaining developable land, protection of environmentally sensitive areas, creating opportunities for more affordable housing and increasing housing choice and diversity." (BMC 20.28.010)

This project also is inconsistent with...
-- the City's Urban Forestry Management Plan, which has the goal of improving our city's urban tree canopy coverage, especially in neighborhoods with a low Tree Equity score, such as the Birchwood neighborhood where this development is located.
​-- the City's approved Climate Action Plan, which aims to improve climate resilience to flooding, urban heat stress, and other climate-caused extremes that are increasingly common. Mature trees are one of our most potent tools to mitigate all of these issues.

Therefore, for these reasons and others, we call on the Hearing Examiner to REQUIRE MODIFICATIONS to this development application. Fewer units -- such as removal of the eight 2,215 SF duplexes that require double the site area of each of the other sixty units -- or a more vertical re-design are two ways to create a nature-integrated urban infill project that will more appropriately balance the City's need for housing with its urban tree canopy and climate action goals.

Infill housing should occur but not compromise the livability of our city. Thank you.