Example Letter - Public Comment
Below is an example of a letter to send the city for your individual public comment.
The points below are the same as are expressed in our Petition to the city.
This example letter can be copied-and-pasted into your email or word document. It can then be edited to emphasize the points you’re most concerned about.
Note that the city will only act in response to comments which are related to municipal code, and to state and federal law. That noted, we can also share our opinions, experiences, and feelings too — feel free to include yours.
The letter can be mailed or emailed; email and postal addresses are provided in the “To” lines.
EXAMPLE LETTER:
To: Kathy Bell, Senior Planner, kbell@cob.org
Steve Sundin, Senior Planner, ssundin@cob.org
Blake Lyon, Planning & Community Development Department Director, bglyon@cob.org
Planning & Community Development Department
210 Lottie Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
From: (Your Name, Your Address)
(Date)
Subject: Require an EIS for the Proposed Subdivision on Mud Bay Cliffs
Dear Ms. Bell, Mr. Sundin, and Mr. Lyon,
I ask you to prevent harms to Bellingham’s publicly-owned spaces connected to Mud Bay Cliffs, and to safeguard our community against known and severe subdivision development risks, by requiring an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) be prepared for The Woods at Viewcrest, a proposed subdivision on the mature woodlands and wetlands of Mud Bay Cliffs.
The proposed subdivision (of 4 current lots into 38 proposed lots, with up to 152 housing units) would likely impose significant adverse impacts to the environment. In addition to these adverse impacts, the developer’s application materials are flawed in substantive ways, which further exposes the public’s interests, including public investments in neighboring fish and wildlife habitats, to considerable risk. The likely significant adverse impacts, coupled with the substantive application flaws, compel the city to issue a State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) Determination of Significance and require an EIS.
A. Unique and Special Site. The location of the proposed subdivision is unique both in its specific characteristics and its physical setting. These unique characteristics and physical setting are important factors that influence why the current subdivision proposal is likely to have significant adverse environmental impacts. The site of this proposed subdivision is currently distinguished by these features:
Specific Characteristics
Important Habitat Hub. The 2021 City of Bellingham Wildlife Corridor Analysis designates this property, which consists of rare mature shoreline woodlands and wetlands habitat, as an Important Habitat Hub – and one of the only Important Habitat Hubs in south Bellingham that remains unprotected.
Geohazards. Significant landslide, erosion and seismic hazards exist throughout the site, and they are sensitive to development disturbances including hydrological changes.
Storm Microclimate. This location is well-known locally for its microclimate of gales during storms – among the strongest gales in Bellingham. Gale intensity has been increasing over the past decade due to climate change. The existing mature woodland acts as a protective buffer for wildlife (both resident and sheltering), and for the community.
Physical Setting
Wildlife Network. This Important Habitat Hub is the center part that links two other Important Habitat Hubs – Clark’s Point and Chuckanut Village Marsh/ Chuckanut Bay Open Space – all of which are connected to a larger, protected Wildlife Network. The public has invested heavily to protect and maintain the Hubs and Corridors of this Wildlife Network.
Estuarine Wetlands. Mud Bay Cliffs is a key watershed adjacent to Mud Bay’s Category I Estuarine Wetlands.
Stormwater. Most drainage from this site flows directly into the Mud Bay Estuarine Wetlands. Drainage discharges from existing city stormwater outlets have already begun to impair the health of this wetland habitat.
Great Blue Herons. The Post Point Colony of Great Blue Herons relies on this site for shelter, and on the Mud Bay Estuarine Wetlands to feed their young. This Heron Colony fled its previous home near Chuckanut Bay as a result of subdivision development activity. Significant public investment has been made to provide habitat protection for this Colony at its new Post Point nesting location.
Salmon. Juvenile salmonids rely on clean water and safe passage through the Mud Bay Estuarine Wetlands, Chuckanut Village Marsh, and Chuckanut Creek. Significant public investment has been made to restore these habitats for salmon.
Traffic Safety and Level of Service.
Traffic safety issues have been well documented on Edgemoor’s narrow, hilly roads with limited sightlines, including where Viewcrest Road intersects Chuckanut Drive (State Route 11). The traffic conditions where Fairhaven Middle School meets the 12th Street Bridge are particularly dangerous. These well-documented issues create precarious and unsafe conditions for walkers, runners, cyclists, and motorists. The city has been notified of these hazardous conditions but has yet to take any action to mitigate them.
Viewcrest Road and the roadways it intersects provide unique access to important public amenities. These amenities tend to have more visitors seasonally and on weekends. Viewcrest’s intersection with Chuckanut Drive is significant as an access point to public amenities including Clark’s Point, Hundred Acre Woods (trailhead at the intersection), and the Chuckanut Scenic Byway (which itself is the sole access to multiple public parklands, trail systems, and public natural amenities).
B. Severe Application Flaws. The proposed subdivision application is severely flawed. Objective and comprehensive assessments suitable to this unique site and setting must be completed to address these flaws before an informed consideration of any subdivision proposals can be made. For example:
The Stormwater Management Plan is incomplete, lacking key required plan elements. As proposed, the subdivision would result in significant increases in runoff volumes, speeds, and sediment/pollution loads. Moreover, by discharging polluted stormwater into the Mud Bay Estuarine Wetlands, significant adverse environmental impacts are probable. The plan fails to address how the ecologically sensitive Mud Bay Estuarine Wetlands, and the Public Shoreline, will be impacted by this development.
The Wildlife Habitat Assessment fails to: identify this site as an Important Habitat Hub connected to other nearby hubs by two Important Habitat Corridors; address the harmful wildlife Habitat Network fragmentation the proposed development would cause; address impacts to the Mud Bay Estuarine Wetlands and salmon habitat of Chuckanut Village Marsh and Chuckanut Creek; address impacts to the Post Point Heron Colony (feeding and sheltering); provide a sufficient wildlife inventory.
The Geotechnical Investigation & Geohazard Report fails to assess the impact of development on groundwater flow and the likely increase in probability, frequency and magnitude of flooding, erosion, and landslide activity. It is documented that development activities would likely make the site hazardous for the subdivision residents, neighbors, and the community at large. These dangers would begin with development disturbances, and would persist for decades to come.
There is no Hydrology assessment at all, which this unique site’s characteristics and setting necessitate. A Hydrology report is essential to evaluate potential environmental impacts, and ensure that any development at this site will not harm local ecosystems and water quality. Clearly, development of infrastructure such as roads, retention walls, driveways, structures and other hardscaping will alter the topography and the flow of water on this geologically complex site. With soils disturbances and proposed infrastructure cutting across the site, it is probable that saturation, drainage, and flooding would be greatly affected. Erosion, rockfall, landslide and flooding to the north would be likely, unless plans are developed using Hydrology information. These likely impacts could severely affect neighboring public and private lands, waters, and wildlife habitat.
The applicant has failed to show how tree removal during both initial infrastructure development, and then later by lot owners, would impact the mature woodland. There is no assessment for how the gales from worsening storms, combined with extensive tree removal, would impact sheltering wildlife and public safety. There is no assessment of how the remaining trees in the proposed narrow 200-foot “buffer” along the shoreline would be affected by adjacent tree removal; it is probable that tree removal would degrade the health of nearby trees in the proposed “buffer” wildlife habitat connecting two Important Habitat Hubs.
The Traffic Impact Analysis fails to address how Levels of Service to public parks, public natural amenities, and scenic byway would be impacted by traffic from this development. Further, it fails to address the known public safety issues which would be exacerbated by increased traffic from the 152 potential new housing units, since fourplexes would be allowed on all 38 lots under a new statewide law.
Because of this site’s unique specific characteristics and unique physical setting, and because of the subdivision application’s profound flaws, the city does not have the accurate, sufficient, and objective information it needs to identify and assess potential significant adverse impacts.
Moreover, the application materials themselves indicate that the proposal is likely to have a significant adverse impact on the natural environment, the built environment, and public health and safety.
I ask the city to protect our public interest and prevent harms to the community:
Require an Environmental Impact Statement, so that any permit decisions are based on a full understanding of the risks to the environment, and to public safety.
Sincerely,
(Signature)