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.