Apr. 28, 2007
Bellingham Herald, front page
GROWTH
Chuckanut park district clears hurdle Sufficient public support found for November vote
PRESERVATION EFFORT IN BRIEF
Last we knew: The Chuckanut Mountains Park District Advisory Committee was
gathering the signatures needed to move forward with its effort to create a park district that would preserve lands from development.
The latest: The committee announced Friday that it got the needed signatures, moving the effort another step toward
the November election.
What's next: The county's Boundary Review Board must approve the effort, and the committee
must bring the effort to the Whatcom County auditor by Aug. 14.
JARED PABEN
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
Backers of a proposed park district stretching
from Bellingham to Bow announced Friday they have the signatures needed to move their effort nearer to the November election.
The Whatcom County auditor certified Friday that supporters got 2,470 valid signatures in support of creating
the district, exceeding the requirement by more than 100, said Bob Gibb, a member of the Chuckanut Mountains Park District
Advisory Committee, the nonprofit group created to back the effort.
The proposed district, which would stretch
from Sehome Hill Arboretum at the north end and follow the coastline and Interstate 5 south to Bow Hill Road, would tax those
area residents to pay for preserving lands from development. The Chuckanut Mountains are the only area near Puget Sound where
the Cascades reach the sea.
"This is such a unique piece of property it just demands being saved, and if
we don't save it now, it'll just get developed," Gibb said.
If the committee can get approval from
the county’s Boundary Review Board and register with the county auditor by Aug. 14, residents in the area would vote
on whether to create a district governed by five commissioners. The proposal, which also needs to make it to the Skagit County
ballot, would also tax voters within the boundaries 25 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value. That’s $50
a year for a property valued at $200,000, for example.
If the effort passed — a simple majority approval
is needed by voters who live within the district, in Whatcom and Skagit counties — it would be the first park district
in Washington created through the petition method, Gibb said.
With the approximately $2.5 billion in land value
in the district, Gibb said, the district could earn about $625,000 a year.
"In today's market, that doesn't
buy a lot of property," Gibb said.
But the district could work with financiers to buy land and pay for it
over a period of decades, he said.
The Boundary Review Board will need at least 45 days to study the proposal,
Gibb said. A formal challenge, which also would require signature gathering, could derail the committee’s plans to get
it on the Nov. 6 ballot, he said.
The district would need commissioners, but because the candidates' filing
deadline is before the deadline for the measure creating the district, time for board candidates would have to be extended,
Gibb said.
Reach Jared Paben at 715-2289 or
jared.paben@bellinghamherald.com <mailto:jared.paben@bellinghamherald.com>.
