Posted by G. Stowe Talbot on Nov 12, 2019
Flag Salute & Invocation by Tim Krell
 
Visiting Rotarians: None
      
Guests:  Brett and Debbie vanSteenwyk
 
Announcements by President Brad
 
Board meeting this Thursday 4:30pm at RMC office all are welcome.
 
Reminder to give to to our annual Turkey Drive thru the Bellingham Food Bank.
 
Sergeant at Arms by Steve Swan
Recognized our club’s veterans, and Veterans Day trivia.
 
Bucks in the Bay
  • Brad $ for outstanding soccer game and Seahawks, also fun event this weekend traveling around and visiting / celebrating Whatcom County’s branch libraries which celebrated 75 year anniversary!
  • Pete Rittmueller turkey bucks;
  • Lance Calloway thankful the election is over, also for Sounders’ win, and a week in St Petersburg FL;
  • Bob Moles happy bucks while on the Big Island at. A nice AirB&B, he is collecting checks for the food bank;
  • Mark Turner $ for food bank, and hiking this weekend up in the snow;
  • Curtis Dye hosted 14 foreign exchange students;
  • Doug Wight $ for food bank, and gratitude for successful hospice auction last weekend;
  • Eddie Hansen update on Docks project, and fun week down in Cabo with his fellow chiro schoolmates;
  • John Purdie for Bellingham Herald article on the start of MBT’s new capital campaign!
  • Anna Williams for a successful VFW event $2500 raised, thanks Flo Simon for serving her amazing BBQ;
Program
Lance Calloway introduced Derek Long, Executive Director of Sustainable Connections.
Derek co-founded Sustainable Connections in 2002.  Derek devoted his talk today to the affordable housing crisis, and specifically to the organization that SC helped form in 2018 called Whatcom Housing Alliance (https://whatcomhousingalliance.org). The WHA’s mission is to create opportunities for more diverse housing choices in all neighborhoods that will contribute toward equitable, prosperous, healthy, and vibrant communities for everyone.
 
WHA has a diverse group of members, both private and public:
  • Education 
  • Advocacy 
  • Technical assistance
“Bellingham for Everyone” is the public brand. Educating the public why more density (infill) in the city is a good thing.  Some of their advocacy priorities:  Helping infill toolkit, helping urban villages.  “Residential multi-family” zoning comprises 18% of Bellingham’s land mass, so there are opportunities to build, but much of this zoning is saddled with a complex set of different density level variations, and this discourages building. The City’s Planning Department is currently trying to simplify this zoning down to just three basic density levels - with available additional “density bonuses”.  The City estimates 1,000 new units could be built if this incentive were implemented. Bellingham ideally needs at least 1,200 new housing units per year to meet incoming demand (and that number is 4,000 annual units for the entire county).  Another problem is the lack of available housing for the “missing middle”, i.e homes for middle income people, which could be row houses, town houses, duplexes etc. costing $200K-300K. How to incentivize these types of units.
 
Each October WHA holds an event called the Whatcom Housing Week, which brings together housing stakeholders, both public and private, to discuss ways to create better housing choices here in our community. It is a free event with speakers and discussion forums, open to all.  Derek invites all of us to take part in the WHA and Whatcom Housing Week.
 
Raffle won by Curtis.
 
Respectfully submitted,
Stowe Talbot