South Hill Floor Area Ratio Proposal

The South Hill Neighborhood Associate is working on a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) proposal in order to preserve the neighborhood’s character.

The FAR of a home is the ratio of the total square feet of a building to the square feet of the lot that the building is built on.

The proposal covers single-family homes in the South Hill district. It would limit the size of the structure to a 45 percent ratio to the property size.

“The reason we selected 45 percent is that we did a study of most single family homes on South Hill and found that the average FAR is 0.39 so we selected a slightly higher number of 0.45 to propose,” said Ray Ballweg, South Hill Neighborhood Association (SHNA) President.

“Large properties would still be able to build to the maximum size, but smaller property sizes would be limited,” Ballweg explained. “Instead of being able to build a 5,500 square foot structure, a typical 5,000 square foot property size would be limited to a 2,250 square foot home.”

Several single-family houses are very large and block surrounding neighbor’s views and light. The new regulation would reduce the blockage of the sun and views in new and renovated homes.

“The view makes every small sacrifice inside the house worth it,” South Hill resident Cameron Mowery said. “If that were to be removed from my life due to construction, my place of residence might lose its luster.”

According to the City of Bellingham Municipal Code, the property owners are not allowed to build houses that are 35 feet high and up to 5,500 square feet in the floor area. While following this code, some very large homes are being built on small lots. The problem with this is that the adjacent and up hill neighbors are being negatively impacted by losing sunlight and views of the bay.

“We always watch the sunsets and eat in front of our view,” said South Hill resident Amanda Jarzynski. “It’s the only reason people put up with our house because it’s so run down!” Obstructed views would not only affect the preference of residents, but also the value of their homes.

“Some realtors estimate that the value of a property with a very good view can be reduced by up to one-third if the view from the property is totally blocked,” Ballweg said. The neighborhood is attempting to avoid these negative impacts and also obtain the historic traits that characterize South Hill.

“The South Hill FAR is undergoing technical analysis by the city.” said Geoff Middaugh, SHNA Land Use Chair. The City Council must approve the proposal in order for it to go forward and be voted on. City Planner Kathy Bell is working with SHNA to prepare a report for the Planning Commission and City Council.

“A positive response from the Planning Commission helps us get approval by the City Council, but is not completely necessary,” Ballweg said. After getting a response from the Planning Commission, the proposal will be presented to the City Council and the members will decide whether to adopt the change or not.

SHNA will have a neighborhood wide meeting on May 5 to discuss the proposal and get feedback from residents.

Ben Mann Visits Lowell Elementary

Lowell Elementary hosted local artist Ben Mann to teach art workshops and help to create a mural for the school library during the month of February.

Mann spent 40 hours, 20 in the classroom and 20 in the art room, between the 10 classes at Lowell. Mann taught the students his illustrative techniques and then let them apply their newly learned skills in the art room. Mann’s style involves first outlining designs in chalk, then painting around the lines and finally removing the chalk to create a black outline around the shapes. His imaginative drawings can be seen in Bellingham at Mallard’s, Avenue Bakery and Mambo Italiano.

“Ben has a very unique style, which is bright and colorful,” Lowell Principal Melissa Ferguson said. “We wanted the children to create a visual for the characteristics of a leader.”

While the kindergarten to fifth grade students learned new techniques from Mann, 45, the main goal for his visit was to create a mural to install in the school library to reflect leadership qualities.

“The 11 leadership qualities represented in the project are: individuality, tolerance, optimism, creativity, exploration, inspiration, responsibility, integrity, empathy, cooperation and balance,” Lowell PTA President Wendy Jones said. “Ben met with our PTA and we mapped out the project together. We decided that each cut out shape should represent a different leadership trait or quality. The cut outs would be in "house" shapes to represent community.” The 10 classes each helped paint one of the houses and the PTA painted the eleventh one.

“Our library will have exciting and inspiring collaborative art pieces that will remind the kids every day of the leadership qualities within themselves,” Jones said.

“We’ve been making time for art,” said Lilly, 10, of Beth Kealy’s fifth grade class. The students got the opportunity to take time off science and math to paint with Mann.

The art project was made possible by cooperation from the Bellingham School District, Lowell Elementary PTA and an Allied Arts Grant. The grant was used to pay for the time spent by Mann and the PTA paid for the materials such as paint.

“I worked with the director of Allied Arts and a teacher who was participating in the Arts Impact Program,” Ferguson said. “We looked at different projects that had been previously done and chose Ben.”

“The Allied Arts of Whatcom County established the Education Project in 2002. It has brought together local arts organizations, schools, artists and art enthusiasts to provide high-quality arts education for Whatcom County students,” according to the Allied Arts website.

“The Allied Arts Education Project is committed to supporting our community, develop equal access arts education programs that create cultural awareness, engage all intelligences, and promote the value of arts as basic education,” according to the Allied Arts website. One of the program’s main goals is to advocate for arts education. The U.S. House of Representative and the U.S. Senate are currently looking to create a legislation to cut $4 billion in domestic spending which includes $40 million Arts in Education programs being terminated. The Allied Arts Education Project believes in keeping the arts alive for students inside and outside of the classroom.

Jones explained how the staff was thrilled to have Mann visit Lowell and that he was wonderful to work with. “The kids really responded to him and enjoyed learning a new technique,” Jones said. “It was a great project.”

“You have the ability and the materials on site to keep this wonderful creative outlet alive in your classroom,” said Mann to the Lowell staff. “This was a real highlight in my years as an artist and as an Arts Educator.”

Graffiti Proliferation in South Hill

The recent proliferation of vandalism in the South Hill neighborhood has left community members concerned.

President Ray Ballweg of the South Hill Neighborhood Association discussed the issues of graffiti in the community at a neighborhood meeting on Feb. 2.

Neighbors have seen garbage cans, telephone poles and utility covers tagged by graffiti. Homeowners who rent out houses have been hit the hardest because not only do they have to handle graffiti on their own homes, but also on the homes that they rent out. Many neighbors expressed these concerns at the meeting.

Most recently, graffiti has been spotted on the 400 block of Bayview Drive and the 100 block of Boulevard St. on Feb. 12 and on the 400 and 700 blocks of North Forest St. on Jan. 19 and Jan. 20 respectively according to Police Reports from the City of Bellingham.

The Bellingham Police Department has encouraged community members to call 9-1-1 the moment when they notice new graffiti. If police are immediately contacted, there is a better chance that they vandals will be caught. If they are caught, this will help police to put a face to the tag.

“Police have been very receptive to our concerns,” Ballweg said. Other neighbors at the meeting expressed concern and willingness to work with the police to catch the suspects. Ballweg believes that there are only one or two criminals who are responsible for the recent vandalism.

According to Washington law, vandalism includes “any willful behavior aimed at destroying, altering, or defacing property belonging to another.”

Washington law also says “vandalism is either a misdemeanor or felony offense. Penalties typically include fines, imprisonment in county jail, or both. In addition, a person convicted of vandalism is frequently ordered to wash, repair or replace the damaged property.” Although vandalism may be a felony, the form of graffiti is only a misdemeanor.

Officer Jeremiah Smith is teaming up with Northwest Youth Services (NWYS) to crack down on graffiti crimes. “Graffiti is causing thousands in property damage,” Smith said. In order to minimize the cost of erasing graffiti and to involve the vandals, Smith will work with boys who have to paint over or scrub graffiti for eight hours a day, two days a week during the summer.

“The City of Bellingham’s direction on how to handle graffiti will be clarified at this future MNAC meeting,” said Geoff Middaugh, South Hill Neighborhood Association member and South Hill representative for the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission. The next MNAC meeting will be on March 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mayor’s Board Room at Bellingham City Hall.