The Lake Whatcom Connector

Tom Pratum is a watershed resident and Water District 10 customer, who draws his water directly from Lake Whatcom.

The passage of the subdivision moratorium by the County Council on December 11 shows that concern for the Lake Whatcom watershed has finally reached the level that policy changes are actually occurring. These changes won’t make everyone happy, and we will hear continued calls which harken back to the engineering ideas of yesteryear repackaged to appear to be “watershed friendly.”

While some of these proposals are inevitable at this point (e.g. the Lake Louise sewer interceptor), others are still held in abeyance. One of these is the so-called Lake Whatcom Connector, also referred to as the Yew Street Connector.

The idea of a Lake Whatcom Connector has been discussed for at least 20 years. The connector actually appears to have taken solid form with the October, 1991, engineering study entitled “Lake Whatcom Transportation Study—Bellingham to Sudden Valley” by Reid Middleton and Associates.

At that time a connector road was proposed between Yew Street and Lake Louise Road through the Geneva area. To improve freeway access, a further connection would be made between Yew Street and I-5 via Samish Way. This latter connection would involve an extension of San Juan Boulevard and is currently listed as priority number 11 (out of 19) on the City of Bellingham’s six-year transportation capital improvement program.

As a result of the 1991 study, a number of routes were proposed for the Lake Whatcom Connector. The two routes preferred in that study are shown in the map on page 11, along with the largest watershed properties which would be most heavily impacted by the proximity of a major arterial.

The connector would traverse the north slope of Lookout Mountain, starting out at about 500 feet in elevation on Yew Street and climbing to about 700 feet near the watershed boundary before joining Lake Louise Road near the 500 foot elevation. In 1991, each of these routes was estimated to have a cost of roughly $13 million. Using a conservative yearly inflation rate of 2.1 percent, this cost has ballooned to nearly $16 million today.

The connector is currently listed as number 70 (out of 70) in the Whatcom County six-year transportation plan, and therefore appears to have little possibility of being built in the near future. However, it is often touted by watershed development supporters as being a solution to stormwater runoff problems in the Cable Street and Lake Whatcom Boulevard areas.

At the same time, it is obvious to opponents that it will make that full build-out of Sudden Valley in all of its Urban Growth Area (UGA) glory all the more likely (note that the Sudden Valley UGA Comprehensive Plan amendment was adopted at the December 11 County Council meeting with only Barbara Brenner opposed).

Additionally, it has grave consequences for the few remaining functional watershed areas in Geneva. It would appear to be a publicly subsidized driveway to help line the pockets of fewer than a handful of watershed developers.