Bellingham Planning Board Sends Golf Course Project Back for Major Stormwater Fixes

BELLINGHAM -- November 20, 2025, Bellingham's Planning Board continued a hearing on the 800-unit, 55-plus Pain Street development to January 15 after a peer reviewer found the project's stormwater systems appear designed within groundwater. Pete Engel of PEC told the board at the November 20 special meeting that three underground infiltration systems lack required soil testing and that most subsurface systems appear to sit below seasonal high groundwater, violating both state two-foot and local four-foot separation requirements. Engel also flagged Road A's 10 percent grade against an 8 percent bylaw maximum, missing ADA infrastructure, crosswalks only 5 feet wide against a 6-foot federal minimum, no phasing plan, and a FEMA flood zone shown incorrectly on the plans. Chair Phil Goyette pushed back sharply against a letter from the applicant's attorney suggesting the board had prejudged the application, calling it "categorically false" and noting the attorney's own conclusion that the permit should be approved, "a little bit hypocritical," Goyette said. The project has been scaled from 1,600 units to 800 since it was first presented, which the applicant's representative attributed to public feedback.