So, Mrs Nerd and I were attending a meeting of the City of Bellingham's Shoreline Commission... because that is how hard we party at the Nerd household... and the reason we were attending was to speak in opposition to a project proposed for Bloedel-Donovan Park.
At the risk of oversimplifying the matter, the Whatcom Rowing Association has been seeking, and is on the verge of getting, permission to build a permanent boat house in the park.
We were there (at the Shoreline Commission meeting) to say... essentially... that is not a good idea.
And the response was... essentially... the rules (as established in 1989) allow it.
This matter has been before the City Council, the City Hearings Examiner, and the Shoreline Commission. And it is getting greenlighted.
The argument in favor of this project is pretty straightforward. Rowing is a good sport, and these are non-motorized craft. And the folks from the WRA are good people.
Cool beans. The folks who are representing the WRA seem very nice. And I am inclined to believe that they will be responsible and dutiful stewards of the lake.
I am going to summarize my comments to the Shoreline Commission here:
If the City isn't willing to say no to this project, to what project will the City say no?
If you are in a hole, and you want to climb out, first you need to stop digging.
The hole we are in with Lake Whatcom has been dug for many decades, and we are obviously not going to stop digging anytime soon.
And we dug that hole one building... one project... at a time. With an abundance of good and pure intentions all the while.
At some point someone is going to have to tell someone, "no, you can't do that in the Lake Whatcom Watershed."
But not today.
Right now, we are agreeing to dig with a smaller, greener shovel. But we continue to dig.
And this isn't the County, which is looking for ways to allow small lots inside the Lake Whatcom Watershed to intensify development, this is the City of Bellingham which is ostensibly a municipality that is much more lake-savvy than the County.
One more bothersome detail... the WRA is a non-profit organization (501(c)3). This point was driven home at the Commission hearing by the WRA representatives.
Well, there are a lot of 501(c)3 organizations around here. Probably hundreds of them.
Can any 501(c)3 organization get permission to carve out a chunk of Bloedel-Donovan for its own private use? Because if so, I imagine that WRA may be the first to ask... but I doubt it will be the last. Every neighborhood association in Bellingham is a 501(c)3... and there are about two dozen of them...
For that reason alone, this is a bad precedent. Particularly when the word "NO" has been surgically removed from the City's vocabulary when it comes to developing in the watershed.
As I see it, Bellingham and the rest of the County, are going through the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief in regards to responding to Lake Whatcom.
We as a community have gotten... very slowly... past Denial.
We got surprisingly quickly past Anger.
And now, most of the community is in the Bargaining stage.
This deal to allow the boat house in the watershed by the City, and the effort to allow more watershed development in the County, are part of the Grand Bargain to Use a Smaller, Greener Shovel While Continuing to Dig the Hole.
Jean Melious, in a recent post at Get Whatcom Planning [LINK], wrote a description of what bears a remarkable resemblance to the Depression stage.
Her post has been lingering in my mind since I read it. The more and more I look around, the more I see evidence that supports Jean's stated reasons for such a stage of grief... there appears to be less and less reason to even try to protect the Lake in light of how the local municipalities are transacting business regarding Lake Whatcom.
Until this community, as a community, gets to the Acceptance stage of grief, we are not going to see any meaningful progress made in terms of restoring Lake Whatcom.
The community, as a community, has to insist on stopping the hole from being dug any deeper.
Until then, we linger in Bargaining (for those of us who know too little about what ails the Lake) and Depression (for those of use who know too much).
As for me... I'm polishing up my Told Ya So song... and accompanying Interpretive Dance. I'm still workshopping the costuming and staging.
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