“If there is one ideal which Bellingham exemplifies, it is Neighborliness. In Bellingham, we are neighbors, through just an afternoon train ride, to Seattle. In Bellingham, we are neighbors, by less than an hour, to Canada. In Bellingham, we are neighbors, from across the ferry, to the Lummi Nation. And in Bellingham, we are always neighbors to each other. We take day trips to the Space Needle, bump into Canadians who crossed the border just to shop at Trader Joe’s, hike and canoe in these shared and sacred lands. We bike in body paint (for real, the annual Bellingham World Naked Bike Ride), crowd shoulder-to-shoulder on the morning bus, and skip from cafe to cafe. I see this in the Project Neighborly grants, small funding opportunities for beautification projects across the city. I see it in the Fairhaven Neighborhood, where “neighborhood character” is beautifully maintained without being a euphemism for restrictive new housing. I see it in the centerpiece of the city’s economy, Western Washington University, where people from across the world become our neighbors in Bellingham. And in Bellingham, every day, I am inspired by what we as neighbors can accomplish when we decide not to think in terms of yes-or-no in “my” backyard, but in “our” backyard. In that, I see a Strong Town.” —Cloux Ross, Local Conversation leader and community member in Bellingham, Washington
In Bellingham, many transportation reform efforts face the Catch-22: "we can't improve transit if there's not enough demand" and "we can't improve housing if there's not good enough transit infrastructure." Fortunately, Bellingham knows the simple solution is just three-words: "Why not both?"
The Strong Towns mindset with regards to turning away from the habitual construction of road-after-road and lane-after-lane is all best exemplified in Bellingham's Complete Streets Planning Protocol, which has city planners, traffic engineers, and other policy-makers focus their attention on how many people Bellingham moves, rather than just how many cars.
Known nationally as a cyclist's paradise, Bellingham has begun to more actively prioritize the needs of its biking community, creating new protected bike lanes that treat the slowing of car traffic not as an inconvenient side effect of bike infrastructure, but as an explicit goal of person-first design, as seen on Bellingham's main downtown thoroughfare, Holly Street. With these exciting new achievements in bike infrastructure come other improvements in pedestrian infrastructure as well, including the introduction of generous Leading Pedestrian Intervals, where the walk sign turns on well before the car traffic light goes green so that pedestrians have comfortable time to cross the street and be visible to traffic.
Meanwhile, new investments in public pedestrian trails (connecting important destinations, rather than serving as mere recreational hiking paths), separated and raised bicycle lanes, and street eatery canopies mean that Bellingham's public land can be used by people, rather than just machines that are liable to tear the very infrastructure they utilize apart. This all comes as Bellingham residents lobby and send their representatives to the Washington State Legislature to begin improving service for the Amtrak Cascades Line, connecting Bellingham to Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; and even Vancouver, British Columbia; reducing Bellingham residents' dependency on federal highways for their regional inter-city travel.
In January of 2025, Bellingham city council approved an ordinance to eliminate parking mandates city-wide to make Bellingham parking development fully flexible. Before this city-wide action, Bellingham had seen success with incremental parking reform, eliminating mandates in select districts, neighborhoods, and "Urban Villages." For over fourteen years, Bellingham had been attempting to encourage the revitalization of its industrial "Old Town" district into a walkable mixed use community, with little to no success.
Within just two years of removing costly parking minimums in the area, hundreds of new units have been constructed or permitted, finally realizing a local dream.
And in Bellingham, things aren't left at just "good enough." The heart of incremental reform is not merely basking in pride at having taken the first step, but always being ready to take the next one. The goal in Bellingham is not just to reduce the parking in the city, but to see to it that that land is used for productive purposes: housing current and future residents while generating the revenue needed for necessary infrastructure.
In recent years, Bellingham has streamlined its zoning restrictions, created an Infill Housing Toolkit to reduce developer friction in multi-family housing construction, embraced the rise of the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU, or commonly known as Backyard Cottage) as an infill technique, and is now gearing up to pass a Middle Housing Ordinance, in line with a 2024 Housing Executive Order. While some other Washington state cities drag their feet to comply with state-mandated housing reforms, Bellingham is committed to going above and beyond in speed and scope as it pertains to forwarding local legislation.
Bellingham knows the unsustainability that is inherent to the Suburban Experiment from painful experience. In its 2025 budget proposal, the city called out the "Legacy of Debt," brought on from compounding costs of infrastructure and road maintenance. And it's resolved itself to change.
Facing a citywide budget deficit, Bellingham began the process in 2024 to incrementally change its spending and revenue-collecting habits to correct the mistakes of yesterday and put an eye on progress for tomorrow. Bellingham moved from a bi-annual to an annual budgeting process, allowing administrations to more dynamically and fluidly make change. That change has begun, including a reduction in the relative proportion of the city's budget allocated to the Street Fund, alongside absolute reductions in other spending areas.
But Bellingham does not believe that "sustainable accounting" just means "austere budget cuts." Smart spending does not mean no spending, or an abdication of Bellingham's capacity to build a stronger town. So Bellingham has also iterated creative methods of revenue generation, from publicly approved levies to a vehicle sales tax designed to price-in the externalities and road-degradation caused by automobiles, all while turning a responsible eye on how that money is utilized.
In recent years, Bellingham has conducted and released its Affordable Housing Report and Buildable Lands Reports, using the insights gleaned from them to focus on the most productive uses of the city's resources. The fruits of these efforts can be seen in matters of city prioritization. One example is Bellingham's new Downtown-Forward administration priority, which prevents the city from subsidizing unsustainable infrastructure on its fringes; and tangible, changes to the built environment of the city itself, as with Waterfront Restoration project, which is quickly creating a new pedestrian-and-cyclist-first community that is walkable and mixed-use.
In Bellingham, elected officials, planners, and other administrators have their ears close to the ground (and thus the residents who walk, bike, and scoot on that ground). City Council members can be found at attendance in meetings of Bellingham community advocacy groups, big and small, like Walk and Roll Bellingham and Strong Towns Bellingham, hearing firsthand the hopes and complaints of entrenched locals, urbanism enthusiasts, young students, and transplants alike.
And through official programs, the city's officials engage in dialogue; like on Bellingham Engage—where residents can always provide written feedback on the planning process—or at the Bellingham Plan Open Houses—where councilors and the planning commission partook in casual, free-flowing, and open dialogue about the formation of Bellingham’s new upcoming Comprehensive Plan.
And, of course, public comment is always respected and encouraged in Bellingham, with the city going to great lengths to ensure these feedback mechanisms stay intact, even in the wake of threats and intimidation at such meetings.
But in a Strong Town, leadership is also aware of the sampling biases present in traditional modes of community outreach and public comment: who shows up to speak at a city council or plan commission meeting is rarely representative of a city’s entire population. So Bellingham is also always prioritizing the cultivation of diverse voices and backgrounds, such as with its Community Development Advisory Board and Planning Commission, which prioritizes the representation of interests in a variety of local communities in its membership The goal is that no one’s needs or input is disregarded just because they couldn’t make a council meeting.
