The Shoreline Master Program (SMP) is the document that regulates development along the City’s shorelines or, “shorelines of the state.” The City’s shorelines of the state are Bellingham Bay, Lake Whatcom and Lake Padden, Chuckanut, Whatcom and Squalicum Creeks, and Padden Creek upstream to McKenzie Avenue. The SMP is codified in Title 22 of Bellingham Municipal Code.
2021 Update
The City last updated – or did a “periodic review” of – its SMP in 2021. Prior to that, the SMP had been updated in 2013. SMP’s are required to be updated every eight years. The Washington State Department of Ecology engages in the update along the way and is the state agency solely responsible for issuing final approval of an SMP update.
SMP Update Materials
- June 24, 2021 Planning Commission Staff Report
- June 24, 2021 Planning Commission PowerPoint
- SMA & SMP Overview
