Bellingham’s Hundred Acre Wood will officially be protected permanently, thanks to the adoption of a new conservation easement agreement between the Chuckanut Community Forest Park District and the Whatcom Land Trust.
The easement, approved unanimously by the Bellingham City Council Monday, July 10, guarantees the land will be protected from development “in perpetuity” and represents the last step in a decades-long project to protect the 82-acre stretch of forest between Fairhaven Park and the Interurban Trail in south Bellingham.
City attorney Alan Marriner called the easement “a great end to the process” that began with a development proposal in the 1990s.
The park, initially slated to be turned into multifamily-zoned housing, was purchased in 2011 using funds from the city’s Greenways Fund and a $3.2 million loan to a special tax district, known as the Chuckanut Community Forest Park District. The park district was able to leverage property taxes over the past decade to pay off the loan (with interest), and with the final approval of the easement, will be able to sunset by the end of the year.
The easement comes with a $75,000 infusion from the park district to help with insurance and permanent protection of the land, said Bob Carmichael, the district’s attorney.
Later this year, the final conservation easement will transfer from the park district to the Whatcom Land Trust.
Though the park district successfully paid off the loan last year, current commissioners opted to renew a much smaller version of the original levy for the 2023 calendar year in order to raise funds for park protection. That tax will continue through the end of 2023, even after the commission dissolves — likely in September or October this year. Remaining funds, as well as the rest of the district’s bank account, will flow into the city’s coffers, Carmichael told city council members.
Carmichael couldn’t predict how much money that would be after the $75,000 transfer and additional tax revenue, though the tax district reported an “unencumbered cash balance” of approximately $284,029 on May 31.
City staff and park district representatives celebrated the unanimous approval.
“I would posit that [no decision is] more important than the enduring legacy that you achieve when you create a park,” Carmichael told city officials. “This is something that will be in place for generations, and it’s happening now on your watch.”
The city created a master plan for the park — the only one in city limits with a conservation easement — that allows for recreation, education in an outdoor classroom, and environmental protection for wetlands in the area.
Parks Director Nicole Oliver called the park a “success story” for the Greenways Fund, the city’s recurring levy designed to purchase green spaces, parks, and trails for Bellingham residents.
