New Neighborhoods May Lead to Increase in Meridian Traffic

A newly developing Bellingham community may worsen the pre-existing bad traffic in the Meridian Neighborhood, according to Steve Mason, Certified Residential Specialist at Windermere Real Estate Whatcom Inc. This new community is called South Springs, and it is a residential area being created in the Reserve in the nearby Cordata Neighborhood. Development of the South Springs community started last year.

South Springs, which is situated north of the Meridian Neighborhood, is continuing to develop more houses over the year, said Mason. He said that this new residential area will definitely move more people into the northern proximity of Bellingham, and most of these people will have to travel south to get to work and school, putting them right into Meridian traffic.

“Any place you build a house, you’ve just added two vehicles to the neighborhood,” said Mason.  “We assume this will add to the traffic that is east of Bellis Fair, which is considered a bad traffic area.”

Another developing neighborhood may add to the traffic congestion in Meridian as well; the development of an urban village within the King Mountain Neighborhood, said Lylene Johnson, Full Service Real Estate Agent at Johnson Team Real Estate. If the urban village is created, Johnson said that may funnel people into the shopping areas of the Meridian Neighborhood. The traffic around Bellis Fair Mall is already scary whether you are in a vehicle or walking around, Johnson said.

            While housing developments around Meridian may increase the traffic flow into the neighborhood, the Meridian Neighborhood itself is not going through any major development changes, said Johnson. The Meridian Neighborhood, composed primarily of commercial zones, is a different kind of neighborhood, said Johnson. She said the commercial development of the neighborhood started with the creation of Bellis Fair Mall.

“This neighborhood shows how commercial, single family and multi-family zones all work together,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that the Meridian Neighborhood is the single neighborhood with the highest number of condominiums in Bellingham, and one reason so many condominiums have developed is due to their proximity to commercial zones.

“There hasn’t been a lot of neighborhood bias against multi-family housing, as you might find in other neighborhoods,” said Johnson. “People that live in single family homes fight to keep their neighborhoods that way.”

Johnson said people that move into single family neighborhoods may watch their neighborhood change into a multi-family neighborhood, and this transformation can change their lifestyle.

“They have a fear of college students moving into the neighborhood, and that is likely to happen in a multi-family neighborhood,” said Johnson. “They don’t fear college kids because they expect a riot, like the one that happened in the Sehome Neighborhood; they just don’t like the traffic that comes with the kids.”

While there is a strong market for condominiums, Johnson said that Meridian is not a good place to sell a house.

            The houses that Windermere Management rents in the Meridian District are older homes, and they are all old farmhouses, said Sandi Jones, the designated broker at Windermere Management. She said this area is very stable and not many homes end up as rentals, and it is the norm for rural areas to be very predominately owner occupied.

            Residential Specialist Steve Mason said people tend to hold onto farmhouse properties in Meridian with the hope that someday, as the city expands, their property value will increase.

“When you drive up Meridian, you don’t see anything that is representative of the residential reality of the neighborhood at all,” said Mason. “You see commercial, you see abandoned homes. This is an isolated part of Meridian; you don’t see anything else like that in the residential areas.

            There could be more people driving through the Meridian Neighborhood if the undeveloped land north of the Guide Meridian is incorporated into the city of Bellingham, said Real Estate Agent Lylene Johnson. This “new arm” would expand city limits and could potentially be a huge housing development project, said Johnson. She said that currently, the city is unwilling to develop that land, and has remained unwilling for years. One of the big topics in the upcoming election in Whatcom County is what kind of development is going to be allowed in Bellingham, and how much the city is going to be allowed to spread, said Johnson.

            “In this race for county and city council, the polls are very polarized and very partisan,” said Johnson. “It is going to be very interesting to see what happens.”