City council gives final plat approval for the second phase of The Ridge

Blaine City Council unanimously gave final plat approval for the second phase of The Ridge at Harbor Hills during its February 27 meeting. The approval will give the go ahead for 110 single-family and multi-family homes. The second phase, which is on the northwest end of The Ridge, will also include utility improvements, public roads, trails and recreational areas.

The 110 homes include 78 single-family residential lots and eight fourplexes. Home construction could start as soon as May or June, said Craig Parkinson principal civil engineer at Cascade Engineering Group. Phase three infrastructure will be built this summer and phase four could be constructed in 2023 or 2024, he said.

City council gave preliminary plat approval for the entire subdivision, formerly known as East Maple Ridge, in June 2020. The preliminary plat included 353 units that will be built in 13 phases. The second division that council approved includes phases four through seven and part of phase 11.

The Ridge is an 88-acre prop-

Stop signs ...

From page 1 said she was concerned that the public hadn’t given any feedback ahead of the public hearing that was scheduled during the regular meeting later that day.

Birch Bay Village board member Sandy Zeitel was the only person who spoke during the public hearing on the stop signs.

“Take a regular car and drive it on the wet and icy road and I think you’ll change your mind about putting [a stop sign] there,” she told council. “We would be slipping and sliding. It’s already a dangerous curve. I think there are going to be accidents and people are going to get killed. People are going to be sliding down the road. We will not be able to make it up the hill.”

Immediately following the public hearing, councilmember Todd Donovan moved to approve the ordinance and councilmember Tyler Byrd seconded the motion.

Donovan said public works employees gave a compelling reason to put the stop signs in. Councilmember Kathy Kershner said she would go with staff’s recommendation because they had thoroughly researched the intersection and determined stop signs were necessary.

Ranney said staff always considers roadway safety due to weather concerns and maintenance crews work their best to make roads safe during poor weather.

“The issue here is sight distance and, at the top of that hill, there is a problem and the stop signs are necessary to make that intersection safe as it’s opened,” he said.

Ranney said the stop signs would be installed within the erty located north of H Street Road, east of Jerome Street and west of North Harvey Road. It is directly to the west of the East Harbor Hills, a 144-acre property also being developed by Skip and Katie Jansen. Grandis Pond, a housing development that will have nearly 1,000 homes when built out, is east of East Harbor Hills.

The plat infrastructure in The next two to three weeks. He said the stop signs were necessary because of anticipated increase in traffic: Over 30 building permits have been issued at Horizon and fire code requires a second emergency access road for that many homes.

Ridge’s second division is more than 80 percent complete, according to city documents. Currently, over a dozen homes are occupied in The Ridge and over 100 people are working on developing and constructing the subdivision. Jansen told The Northern Light in January that he expects The Ridge to be complete by the end of 2025.

Whatcom County Council clerk Dana Brown-Davis said Birch Bay residents have sent feedback to councilmembers following the February 21 decision, but did not have an estimate on how many people have emailed or phoned council. Brown-Davis said there are no plans for the stop signs to be on the Tuesday, March 7 council meeting agenda but residents may speak during the meeting’s public comment period and email councilmembers at council@co.whatcom.wa.us

The next council meeting will be held 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 7 at 311 Grand Avenue in Bellingham or remotely. For more information on remote participation, visit bit.ly/3VEQu5w.