I've covered local government for almost a decade and I've never seen a project on the scale of Barkley Village make it through any kind of approval process without public pushback. If neighbors have concerns, they mobilize.

 

But even though the official designation as an urban village will enable massive amounts of new development in the mixed-use area northeast of downtown, no one from the community made a peep of dissent during the public hearing, and the Bellingham City Council was uniformly supportive.

It might have something to do with the local owners of Barkley Village already having a track record of following through on development promises. Barkley Village isn't perfect — it does have an obscene amount of parking, the legacy of antiquated parking requirements — but it does offer a walkable neighborhood that is well-served by the bus system, with a variety of amenities, ample green space and lots of housing, much of it affordable.

 

This is what Bellingham's government and residents claim they want, which may be why Barkley Village made it smoothly to final approval this week. It'll be interesting to watch the buildout continue over the next few decades.