Puget Neighborhood Post: February 2011

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Rainwater Accumulation Threatens Neighborly Love

In the Puget neighborhood, it is to your greatest advantage to be really nice to your neighbors.

That way, when rainwater accumulates in their lawn, you can hope they won’t divert it into yours.

Because according to local utilities engineer Martin Kjelstad, that’s the main reason behind most of the calls he takes: people upset with their neighbors for diverting water onto their property.

“Soils here aren’t granular and don’t drain properly,” said Kjelstad. “People divert accumulation from yard to yard to yard to yard.”

Puget’s recently updated neighborhood plan says there are at least 11 drainage problem areas in the neighborhood. According to to Brian Smart of Puget's planning department, there are currently no plans to alter the drainage system.

So for the time being, bake your neighbors some cookies and be on the lookout for suspicious shoveling. It may not be bulbs your neighbors are planting.

Puget’s new Plan Highlights Local Drainage Problems

February 9, 2011

This January, Bellingham’s Puget Neighborhood Plan was updated for the first time since 1996. Brian Smart, a member of the planning department since 1996, said that neighborhood plans are essentially smaller, area-specific versions of city plans, which are supposed to reflect how the public feels that their city should grow. Actual growth, however, is the responsibility of that public.

“You can plan, but it all comes down to individual property owners,” Smart said. “The neighborhood plan is really a guiding document.”

Puget’s 2011 plan identified at least 11 drainage problem areas in the neighborhood. A “drainage problem area” is defined in the plan as an area identified by residents to accumulate excessive rainwater.

According to utilities engineer Martin Kjelstad, most of these problem areas are the result of non-granular soils in hillier areas. The soils don’t allow rainwater to drain properly, so it accumulates in people’s lawns unless they divert it, he said.

“Neighbors diverting water from lawn to lawn is what we mostly get calls about,” Kjelstad said.

Smart said that Puget’s most unusual drainage problem is the portion of Lincoln Creek enclosed in a pipe that runs underneath Fred Meyer. In the 1960s to 1980s, when most of Puget’s drainage pipes were being installed, people didn’t fully realize how important the creek could be to the community and ecosystem, said Smart.

“Today we realize how valuable the creek is to the ecosystem,” Smart said, “but because the pipes run underneath Fred Meyer’s foundation, it’s a difficult situation.”

Currently there are no plans in the works to reroute the creek, but the city is considering the replacement of watermains at some facilities south of Lakeway Drive and east of Lincoln Street, very near to the Fred Meyer in question. The watermains currently in place are too small to meet fire flow requirements, Smart said. The replacement may not happen anytime soon, however; watermain replacement is on the city’s to-do list, just not at the top.

“It’s got to come out of the public facilities fund, which only gets so much money per year,” Smart said.

Other locations identified by Puget’s new Neighborhood Plan to be drainage problem areas include older sections of Nevada Street, East Lopez Court at East Toledo Street, Panderosa Street at Toledo Street, Wildflower Way at Wildflower Court, Moore Street at York Street, Fraser Street at Lincoln Street, Pacific Street at, and north of, Lakeway Drive, Toledo Street, East Racine Street, and Edwards Street at Puget Street.

Drainage pipes installed in 1995 at most of these locations run parallel to the street instead of perpendicular leaving less room for roadside ditches, said Kjelstad. This means that as water accumulates, it is more likely to flow from lot to lot.

Smart said it could be years before some of these problem areas are addressed, and before much of Puget’s new plan is put into action. Although the ecomomy seems to have stabilized, banks are remaining tighter with loans.

“The economy really put a damper on building permits,” Smart said.

The Markets at Lakeway to be Completed by June

January 31, 2011

BELLINGHAM, Wash- Markets LLC plans to install a new Markets location at the former Cost Cutter site in Lakeway Center by June 2011. The Lakeway Cost Cutter closed with a liquidation sale in early December, letting go more than half of its employees.

Sue Cole, spokesperson for The Markets, which owns Cost Cutter, said that less than 20 employees were kept and redistributed to nearby Markets branches.

“I would say less than 20 employees were kept, using the seniority process,” said Cole. “We try to keep as many as we can.”

Construction at the 73,000-square-foot Lakeway Center, owned by the Ennen Brothers partnership, officially began two weeks ago, and thus far has not affected adjacent businesses, say shop owners. Radio Shack employee Christopher Lee said that while the construction does take up parking space, it has been fairly self-contained.

“The noise isn’t that big of a problem,” Lee said.

Robert Ward of Franklin Corporation, the construction company performing the exterior renovation, said plans were in the works to renovate the entire center. The center, built in 1974, was last remodeled in 1987, and this seems to be a welcome change.

“The whole thing needs a facelift,” Ward said.

According to Karen Smith of the City of Bellingham permits department, renovation plans include a total resurfacing of Lakeway Center’s parking lot, a new façade, and the installation of decorative columns. Resurfacing the parking lot, with faded white paint that disappears in places and cracks the size of speed bumps, benefits all of the businesses and their customers.

“The renovation will affect all businesses in the center,” Smith said. It is unclear whether the renovation will cause any businesses to close temporarily, and Smith said any decisions regarding business operations will be left to the individual owners. The renovations should not put any of the businesses in jeopardy.

“Everybody would stay, we’ll work around the businesses,” Ward said.

Ward said Pearson Construction is being considered for the interior remodeling, but a contract has yet to be drawn. Pearson executive Larry Pederson said the company will find out if they are chosen by the end of the week.

“We went through an interview process this morning,” Pederson said January 24. “We should know by the end of the week if Pearson is chosen.”

As of this morning, Ennen Brothers has yet to inform Pearson of their choice.

New employees will need to be hired before the Markets at Lakeway opens, in addition to transfers from other Markets locations. Priority will be given to applicants who have worked with the company before, including those recently dismissed from the Lakeway Cost Cutter, Cole said.

Established in 2008, Markets LLC took over grocery chain Brown and Cole when it filed for bankruptcy, and has since opened 21 locations in Washington, eight in Whatcom County. The company’s mission statement includes the eventual transformation of all of Washington’s Cost Cutters into Markets, which offer more local and organic produce.