University Ridge Student-Housing Complex

A dorm-like student-housing complex has been proposed for a site between Consolidation Avenue and Nevada Street, near the Lincoln Creek Park and Ride, and Puget and Samish neighborhood residents are worried about its impact on traffic and noise.

The 164-unit project, called University Ridge, would be built on an undeveloped 11.13-acre lot. The site plan, submitted for review Jan. 17, includes four buildings and a detached clubhouse with a game room, fitness center and basketball court. The complex would have fully furnished two and four-bedroom units with shared kitchens and bathrooms. It would accommodate 576 residents and have on-site management.  

The site is zoned for multi-family residential development and is located between two single-family residential neighborhoods.

“Even right now noise complaints, party complaints, drinking complaints in either downtown or apartment complexes, [police] can’t keep up with it as it is,” Conoboy said. “You put 600 relatively inexperienced young adults there and they’re going to be targets for crime, theft, cars and vehicle problems and that kind of thing.”

The application will be for a boarding and rooming house rather than residential dwelling units, said Kathy Bell, a City of Bellingham planner working on the project proposal.

“The density for a boarding and rooming house is actually established for occupancy, which in this case is the number of beds,” Bell said.

This would allow the developer to house more people in one unit than city code allows: no more than three unrelated people may live in the same unit. The current zoning would allow 176 units, or over 900 beds, but the planning department recommended 164 units, or 576 beds to the developer.

“But we recommended to them in the beginning … that they try to stay, for the neighborhood’s perspective, within the density range of dwelling units.”

The developer, Ambling University Development Group based in Georgia, has provided more than 60 campus development projects nationwide. University Ridge would be Ambling’s first project in Washington.

Residents living within 500 feet of the site were notified of Ambling’s Jan. 3 public meeting. But other community members are just learning of the project. According to Mary Chaney, Puget Neighborhood Association President, concern for the potential impact of the complex explained the large turnout at the February association meeting.

“They came because this is heavy on their minds,” Chaney said. “The great number of the attendees were from Nevada Street or Marionberry Court and other people in that area who either abut the 11 acres or live down the street and they will be impacted by people, student behavior – they think that student behavior can be noisy – and traffic.”

Dick Conoboy was one such attendee. He is a member of the Samish Neighborhood Association and Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission and has lived on South 46th Street since 2002.

“This is likely to be my last home,” said Conoboy who is retired. “I don’t pick up and move easily. I did that all my life and I don’t want to anymore. Most of my money is tied up in this home. It’s a major investment. So, if people come in and build something relatively next door it ruins my quiet enjoyment here and destroys property values, then that’s a problem for me.”

Neighbors are worried about an increase in noise and the devaluing of property that could result.

“From my own point of view up here – I’m probably about a block and half away – I hear noise from downtown and I-5,” Conoboy said. “So, you get 600 people on a weekend having a good time, which people like to do, it’s going to be quite a noisy place.”

Many are concerned about the impact on traffic, as the site is only accessible by Consolidation Avenue and Nevada Street. Questions about the potential environmental effects were also raised at the association meeting. The result of studies conducted by Ronald T. Jepson and Associates, the local engineering firm working on the project, will not be available until the land-use application is submitted.

“The developer provides an environmental checklist and all the necessary studies to go along with that; transportation, wetlands, steep slopes, it will look at vegetation removal. It covers everything,” Bell said. “There’s still so much unknown and without an application it would only be speculative as to what’s going on.”

Ambling submitted a height variance application Jan. 17, but has not yet applied for a land-use permit. City code restricts buildings within 200 feet of an area zoned differently to a height of 35 feet. The developer requested a height of 58 feet for the two buildings closest to Puget Street.

Puget Street homeowners are worried that if granted, the additional height would affect views.

“No, not at all,” Jepson said. “That’s the thing we’ve been working on, making sure we get the buildings as low as we can given the location.”

According to Bell, the height is measured from the lowest part of the existing grade up to the roof peak. Because the site is located on a slope, the current height limit would allow two buildings to have about two stories. A height of 58 feet would allow four stories to be built without affecting the views of residents uphill.

The city planning department determined that the variance application was complete Feb. 15 and opened a 14-day public comment. A public hearing before a hearing examiner allows residents to provide testimony before the final decision is made. But the variance hearing that was scheduled for March 20 has been postponed.

“We’re making some changes to the site plan based on those neighborhood input and maybe some of the suggestions made by the staff and we want to reflect those changes,” Jepson said. He said the aim is to reschedule for late April. 

If denied, the site plan will need to be changed.

“From their perspective, the decision is critical and I think originally that was why they wanted [the variance request] to go first,” Bell said. “But that was their choice.”

For residents like Conoboy, a lack of information is the most frustrating part.

“The planning staff are doing a number on the residents here on the way they’re scheduling things and accepting variance before we have all the information,” Conoboy said. “You get the cart before the horse. All of this should be put together at the same time and applied for at the same time.”

Conoboy said that the housing complex is not appropriate for the site. The Infill Toolkit, an urban housing development project, would be a better choice, he said.

“You should have a transition between the single family neighborhoods a little further out and the actual urban village and that was what the infill toolkit was created for, at least that’s what they told us at the time,” Conoboy said.

The developer might resubmit the variance application or choose to submit it along with the land-use permit application, Bell said.

“If they choose to consolidate, which it sounds that it’s likely they will, they will again go through these processes,” Bell said. “They will make their application and then again we’ll go through the determination of completion. If it’s consolidated, all of their applications will go to the hearing examiner.”

Many community members have already submitted comments and made phone calls to the planning department and Jepson and Associates. Although the comment period has closed, another will open when the next application is submitted. It pays to take the time to make them count. 

“I want to hear the concerns,” Bell told people at the Puget Neighborhood Association meeting Feb. 19. “They take more weight when they literally have more weight.”  

“Don’t just say no. Say, ‘this is too dense’ or ‘this is too much traffic’ or ‘this is why I don’t like the plan,’” Chaney said. “Make your point and then back it up with information. Substantiate your point and offer ideas that could make it better as opposed to getting on your high horse.”

Bell encourages residents to give their rationale and their reasoning. Many of the comments already received did that.

“To say no because this is how it will affect me and these are the ways it will affect me or impact me, I think is what’s important,” Bell said.  

Community members may also call the planning department or submit concerns by mail or email. More information is available on the City of Bellingham University Ridge website.

http://www.cob.org/services/planning/neighborhoods/puget-uni-ridge.aspx.

Whatcom County Health Department's Nurse-Family Partnership Program Gains Momentum

The Whatcom County Health Department Nurse-Family Partnership Program had cause for celebration last week, welcoming the first baby born since the program began enrolling families in December.

The Nurse-Family Partnership program is a community health program that provides support and resources to low-income mothers in their first pregnancies with the goal of providing children the best start possible. Nurses begin providing home visits to mothers beginning around 28 weeks into the pregnancy and continuing through the child’s second birthday. The program aims to improve pregnancy health and outcomes, child health and development and help families become economically self-sufficient.

Whatcom County Health Department received a $175,000 grant last July from the state’s Home Visiting Services Account. Fueled by public and private dollars, the account funds evidence-based home visiting programs and is administered by the Department for Early Learning and Thrive By Five, a non-profit organization for early learning. Today, two nurses serve the 12 Whatcom County families enrolled.

“The nurse will provide information about potential healthy outcomes – what you would want to be working for – and really talk with family about what sparks their desire. ‘What do you want to grow in? What do you want to know more about? What is it that you want to do in order to provide the healthiest environment you can for your child?’” said Judy Ziels, a public health nursing supervisor at Whatcom County Health Department.

In addition to giving physical health assessments, nurses help families develop goals in areas ranging from physical and social environment to physical health, work and education plans or parenting skills. But parents run the show.

“A primary principle of Nurse-Family Partnership is we follow the client’s heart’s desire,” Ziels said. “Change always needs to be motivated from within, and yet there are parameters that the nurses come in with particular information or areas of interest within that, it’s always focusing on what the family wants to know about and what they want to achieve.”

Established in 1970, the Nurse-Family Partnership model has been adopted in 42 states and become renowned for its success in improving early education and health outcomes.

“If you look at the national studies about Nurse-Family Partnership, children are much less likely to need special education, they have much better health and education outcomes, they’re less likely to have childhood abuse and neglect in their family, they’re more likely to graduate from high school, they’re less likely to enter the juvenile justice system,” Ziels said. “It’s just working with the family to get things in place in order to help that child to the best that they can do in life.”

In an analysis of 20 early childhood programs by the RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organization, Nurse-Family Partnership was found to have returns of $5 for every dollar invested.

Working closely with Skagit County’s already well-established program, Whatcom County Health Department hopes to replicate those results. Skagit County’s nursing supervisor acts as a resource for Whatcom County’s two nurses, helping them reflect on cases and problem solve.

“If this is successful and we grow then we might one day become independent,” Ziels said. “But this has been a beautiful way to start up. It’s been much less expensive, we’re learning from their expertise.”

Thirteen Washington counties have Nurse-Family Partnership programs. State data collected between 2010 and 2011 shows that 91 percent of babies born to the program were born full-term with 93 percent at a healthy weight. It also shows a 21 percent reduction in smoking during pregnancy and 94 percent of mothers began breastfeeding.

“We know that we are generally a really healthy community, but there are pockets of vulnerability,” Ziels said. “Looking at the data, we know that one of those pockets is poverty across the board, but there’s some specific issues in Whatcom County.”

In 2010, 15 percent of Whatcom County’s population was living under the poverty line, roughly 3 percent higher than the state poverty rate. Of single mothers with children under 5 years old, 62.6 percent live below the poverty line.

“All of these are pockets that we know in Whatcom County are more likely to have poor health and education outcomes,” Ziels said.

Whatcom County has a higher rate of adult substance abuse treatment at 18 per 1,000 individuals than the state at 13 per 1,000. High rates of maternal depression are another concern. The health department reported that more than 25 percent of Maternity Support Services clients exhibit depressive symptoms.

Most clients currently enrolled in the program were referred through WIC or health care providers, Ziels said. “But the women that are probably most at risk are a little bit harder to reach. We want to be serving the families that most need it and not just the families that walk through our doors,” she said.  

Low-income Latina women are another priority population, Ziels said.

“Statistically speaking, those of Hispanic descent or immigrant populations have a higher risk of poor birth outcomes and pregnancy outcomes as well as less access to medical care,” said Erin Schuldt, a nurse with the program. “Hispanic and immigrant populations are also more prone to be living in poverty, which means poorer health and poorer access to medical care during pregnancy. So, it is an at risk population that we want to make sure we are serving.”

Reaching families can be the real challenge. By partnering with local organizations the health department hopes to do just that.

Community to Community Development, a non-profit Latino farmworker community organization, is one such partner. Working to empower under-represented people, C2C provides resources and education surrounding food justice and civil rights while building a sense of community.  

“We just started talking with some folks at the county health department about how we can start working together,” said Tara Villalba, an AmeriCorps volunteer and promotora, or community health educator, with C2C. “We’re still in the beginning stages.”

“We’re trying to figure out what [the program] can offer the folks that we work with and how we can use it in a culturally appropriate way,” Villalba said. “The members that we see, if they are coming in about health issues, they usually run into some sort of barrier whether they can’t communicate with health practitioners, don’t have access to services or the people offering the services are unfamiliar with the lives and backgrounds of Latino farmworkers. They might say or do things that are very insensitive or alienate the folks that come in here.”

Establishing trust between program employees and community members must come first.

“Folks take advantage of information coming from folks that they trust,” said Villalba. “That’s something C2C has developed over a long period of time. We also want to make sure that if we partner with somebody, that folks in the farmworker community can trust that we are not going to be part of law enforcement, unless they themselves want law enforcement to be involved. That they’re going to be able to advocate for themselves. That it’s not going to be a process that is going to run away from their control.”

Additionally, providing information in Spanish is necessary to serve many families.

“We primarily communicate with folks in Spanish. So whatever information there is has to available in Spanish,” Villalba said.

“All materials in the Nurse-Family Partnership program are bilingual, available in both English and Spanish,” said Schuldt who speaks Spanish. “The program is set up to be able to serve Spanish speaking clients.”

Whatcom’s program has the ability to serve 45 families. Ziels said the health department expects to reach that number sometime in early spring. If the program meets its goals, outlined in quarterly reports to the Home Visiting Services Account, funding will continue for the duration of the five-year grant.

“We’re starting up by seeing what the community need is, seeing our ability to support this program and definitely our long-term goal is to become independent, but we also want to make sure that the need is there and it makes sense and we’re able to sustain that,” Ziels said.