Just curious, after reading this well written informative and informed article, and Dick Conoby's comment and link: Does Michael Chiavario's comment about condemning properties for below market value mean condemning disturbed lands or undistrurbed lands such as forests, wetlands, etc? I don't think undisturbed lands should be condemned, nor Critical Areas, whose protections have been so weakend in the past 30 or so years. Who gets to decide? That is how we lost tons of forest here, diverted natural wetland streams or filled them, creating floodplains elsewhere and upsetting the whole ecological balance as well as endangering homes, farms, etc.

We hear the chainsaws and falling trees daily, watch the logging trucks take the trunks of many mature trees away to the mainland - as the winds can blow hard with little windbreak anymore - the trunks no doubt sold to the highest bidders. Meanwhile:   gentrification, mass homelessness due to absurd 'market rate' rents, land-rich but cash-poor families forced to sell and move away, and no solution or social safety net for the neediest or the working class - meaning workers must leave; essential businesses are short-staffed, leading to more dependence on automation and Ai, taking more jobs, etc. 

I've lived here for 44 years, watching this unfold here and elsewhere. My heart is broken. It's time to stop the predatory practices and LLC trading. 

Huge investment corporations and private investors are gobbling up lands, commercial and apartment complexes for development purposes. Here in our Urban Growth Area (UGA), 54% of our population or more are mandated to live there - only 2 big problems, though: 1)  Our UGA sits on a riparian forested Critical Area watershed (protections gutted), everything logged of trees here and in the hills around (erosion) - that's our drinking water down here. 2) What's mainly being built is private luxury houses and condos that sit empty for much of the year as mixed and even madrone forests continue to be bulldozed.

The majority of our housing in and around 'town' is being built for the 10%, not the 150% in need. ADUs are banned in areas that would take some of the pressure off of us. Can't see the night sky anymore - light pollution. The issues borne of this iniquity are many, especially for families trying to stay despite impossible odds. Both parents must work, often 2 or 3 jobs each. Childcare is expensive for the younger children. It's no longer the era of a parent at home, unless they work at home, and most of who work at home are in the better-paying jobs. Slowly our shops are being replaced by banks, realty offices, and title offices. 

I'm hoping that Bellingham citizens stay involved with this and fend it off as much as possible. I'm happy to see you still fighting the good fight in Bellingham and its surrounding lands. 

PS - Public Works engineers are even worse - hamstrung by state DOT grants that mandate road widening and destroying more natural habitat and causing more erosion, ad nauseum. I hope we can send comment.

Hello, my heart hurts reading this. Does daylighting mean restoring the creek to its natural condition before it was imprisoned by the culvert and fill? The absolute WORST thing thay can do is creek diversion, which will screw up the natural watershed and dry up places that need that water table and, as you so eloquently explained, create a floodplain elsewhere. Chuckanut Drive is one of the most beautiful roads; I hope the people will fight to protect this habitat because it is precious and rare anymore. Planners don't seem to understand anything about lands they have never trod, nor studied in the field., or through years of patient observation through seasonal changes in water tables.

Can people from the San Juans make comment? Our Planning Commission, advisory groups, and former councilpersons on Orcas Island except for the brave few who fought to protect Critical Areas, ruined so many of our contiguous wetlands in our "Urban Growth Area." 

Thanks! I will sign up for her substack. I know she used to have a blog called Web of Debt as well. She is an amazing person; has done so much toward trying to get Public Banking going.

Though this is from way back in June, everything said here resonates with me and I am sick at heart to see the complete urbination of the San Juan Islands - Orcas Island Urban Growth Area (UGA) in particular - once a riparian wetland watershed with saltwater bodies on both sides of the narrow land mass that is our UGA - with a downtown density of 40 units per acre! The rest has gobbled up and destroyed our urban forests. The GMA is the worst thing that has happened to our state. I try to get people involved here but there is either apathy or despair/ ‘what’s the use?’ It’s so depressing. We still have never had what we’ve been asking for, for decades - a total buildout study showing what this place will become and is becoming. This is happening not just to cities in WA but rural areas in particular. Thank you for this article and the comments. I feel less alone and crazy reading them.

Excellent article; thank you. Are we in Washington at all close to creating a State owned Public Ban? With all of Tim Eyman’s initiatives hamstringing our state legislature, would it even be possible? If so, what can we do to help this along?

There was a lady I loved reading and I have lost track of her but she promoted the idea of both state and federal Public banking. Ellen Brown was someone I used to follow a lot. Haven’t heard much from her but found this May 2024 article from the Public Banking Institute - of which she is co-founder. Seems Calif. has similar budget problems to Washington state. The remarkable plummet from a very large surplus to huge deficit seems suspect. They too need 2/3 of state legislature to get anything done.
https://publicbankinginstitute.substack.com/p/tackling-californias-budget-crisis?r=32zcx8