Making the most of Bellingham’s remaining residential land.
One of the biggest reasons people can’t find homes they can afford is that there just aren’t enough. If we are going to make more housing available and stem the tide of rising costs in Bellingham, we need to build more homes and a wider variety of them.
But we can’t just keep building the same housing types we have in the past. This country has an abundance of single-family homes and larger scale multi-family buildings, such as apartments. The same is true here in Bellingham, where most development effort over the past several decades has focused on supplying more single-family homes.
We need to build denser – with more homes on the same amount of limited land – and we need to build different, more affordable housing types. We’ve heard many community members say this is what they want and need.
Middle housing can help us meet our housing needs by making the best use of Bellingham’s remaining developable land.
- It is generally more affordable and provides a wider range of housing types at various price points.
- It requires less land per unit than detached housing.
- It helps reduce sprawl, promotes walkability, helps protect environmentally sensitive areas, and makes the best use of investments we’ve already made in roads, water lines, sewers, schools and other public infrastructure.
- It provides residents with choices that meet the expanding needs of our changing demographics.
At one end of the housing spectrum are single-family homes. At the other end are larger scale multi-family buildings, such as mid-rise and high-rise apartments. Middle housing describes home types at various price points and scales between those two ends of the spectrum.
Middle housing includes these forms:
- Accessory dwelling units (ADUs)
- Small lot single-family houses
- Cottages
- Duplexes
- Triplexes
- Fourplexes
- Fiveplexes
- Sixplexes
- Courtyard housing
- Stacked flats
- Townhouses
Many of our current zoning rules are outdated and do not reflect the changing needs, demographics and values of our community. Some of the zoning regulations have resulted in the perpetuation of exclusionary and inequitable housing practices. By expanding the range of housing types allowed citywide to include middle housing forms, members of this community (both current and future) will have increasing options to find housing that meets their current and evolving needs, be that socially, financially, functionally, or stylistically.
Almost every residential neighborhood in Bellingham has examples of middle housing. They were more commonly developed pre-World War II, then traditional zoning became more common in cities across the country and led to rules prohibiting middle housing.
Bellingham’s first zoning code was adopted in 1947. Unfortunately, historical zoning practices often focused on the separation of uses. Aided by the popularity of automobiles, land uses were spread further and further apart, which often led to more inefficient suburban sprawl development patterns.
In the early 2000s, the City began to see an increasing need to encourage more middle housing development as a solution to dwindling buildable land and sprawl and adopted an infill housing toolkit in 2009.
What’s being done to create more middle housing?
Bellingham’s Infill Housing Toolkit
In 2009, Bellingham adopted an infill housing toolkit to make it easier to develop middle housing in Bellingham, while establishing design standards that help them architecturally blend into existing neighborhoods. Since 2009, amendments to the toolkit have been adopted that expand where it is allowed, refine standards in response to user feedback, and streamline the review process for small-scale projects.
Current efforts in Bellingham to expand middle housing opportunities.
We’re seeking to correct outdated rules by changing Bellingham’s code to allow middle housing in all neighborhoods. Mayor Kim Lund signed an executive order in November 2024 that includes actions supporting middle housing. The order calls for accelerating the changes required by the new state laws on middle housing.
On May 19, 2025, City Council adopted an interim ordinance that expands Bellingham’s existing middle housing toolkit (the infill housing toolkit) for citywide application. The ordinance allows middle housing in all areas of Bellingham that are zoned predominantly for residential use, except on property in the Lake Whatcom Reservoir.
New State requirements will expand middle housing.
In 2023, the Washington State Legislature passed legislation to increase the availability of middle housing. This legislation requires Bellingham to allow a variety of housing types and meet the requirements by December 31, 2025.
Under the new state rules:
- We must allow up to four housing units on any lot zoned primarily for housing (with few exceptions).
- We must allow up to six units per lot in some areas, provided the additional two units are designated as affordable housing.
- In the process of approving these middle housing types, we may not require standards that are more restrictive than the rules for detached, single-family homes.
- We have the option to use the State adopted model code or develop our own development regulations, as long as they are in alignment with state law.
What will changes to middle housing rules mean for Bellingham?
Updates to our middle housing rules will result in incremental changes. Over time we’ll add more housing choices throughout the city, which the community is asking for. In the City’s 2023 Housing Preference Survey, 58 percent of respondents said they would prefer to live in small-scale residential or urban residential areas, with diverse housing mixed with commercial services, good bicycle and pedestrian connectivity, and access to transit.
- As a renter, more middle housing means there will be additional and different housing choice.
- As a property owner, it means you can add an ADU or otherwise develop your property to add up to four (and possibly six) housing units in most areas.
- As a neighbor, it means that you might see new, small-scale homes popping up nearby.
- For all of us, it means we’ll be designing for a future with housing choices that welcome a diversity of residents, family types and incomes.
