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.