Whatcom Success

Even before creating a Whatcom County chapter, Futurewise has been active and effective within the county:

•    Convinced the Whatcom County Council to reverse a decision designating two highly sensitive parts of Puget Sound shoreline (Point Whitehorn and Birch Point) for urban development, eliminating over 1,200 units of sprawl development.

•    Won a legal decision requiring the county to:
1)  Downzone 16,000 acres of rural lands zoned for sprawl development. These change will limit storm water runoff into the pPuget Sound and protect such treasures as Chuckanut Drive and Lummi Island.
2) Upzone over 7,000 acres of land in the urban growth area zoned at less than four dwelling units per acre.  This will make housing more affordable, make public facilities and services more economical, and allow the county to shrink urban growth boundaries (areas where urban development is allowed).

•    Convinced the county council to adopt a critical areas ordinance that increased wetlands buffers by up to 200 feet, expanded stream buffers by 50 feet, adopted a 150 foot wide marine buffer where previously the county had none, and doubled wetland mitigation ratios for wetland enhancements.

Click here to learn about our priorities for 2008.