Bellingham Planning Board Sets $1.46 Million Bond, Advances Two Development Projects

BELLINGHAM -- December 11, 2025, Bellingham Planning Board advances two commercial projects and raises road bond standard to $1.46 million. The board continued the Blackstone Street residential development hearing to January 22, 2026, after peer reviewer Tom Michelac of Beals and Thomas flagged unresolved stormwater gaps, including a shortfall between the town's required 90 percent TSS removal and the project's proposed 85 percent system, and project engineer Michael Dryden acknowledged several items require offline resolution. Separately, the board opened a new public hearing for a 7,320-square-foot multi-tenant commercial building at 455 Hartford Avenue, where applicant engineer Dan Amaral of Legacy Engineering sought a special permit to cut required parking in half and a waiver to build stormwater basins in fill; that hearing was continued to February 12, 2026. The board also approved a $1.46 million road bond for the Whitman Circle private roadway, a figure Rob, the town planner, described as a major improvement over the 2015 methodology, and voted to revise Form J to explicitly cite subdivision regulation sections 245-8 and 245-9, codifying a three-year infrastructure-in-place requirement before the final 20 percent of any road bond can be released.