In April the City of Ferndale issued building permits with a total valuation of $4.9 million, the highest monthly total in more than a year. In March 2011, the total valuation of permits issued was $1.8 million.
Most of the approved permits for April came in the new homes category, with nine new home permits issued for $1.9 million. Permits were also issued for commercial remodels and a new commercial project.
In comparison, Ferndale’s monthly total nearly matched the April total of unincorporated Whatcom County ($5.2 million).
Whats going on by haggen?
Rumor has it…it’s a Jack In The Box restaurant
I asked about Haggen’s. Apparently, a full service Chase Bank is going in, as well as another business. I don’t remember what the other business is.
Hope all builders that were building build in Ferndale from now on tha mabe Bellingham
will get the notice you can onl screw the people for so long
What is really interesting is to compare this activity to the Bellingham activity. Bellingham, year-to-date in March, had issued 10 single family home permits and three multi-family (6 units). When the construction and building is beginning to happen in other parts of the county than the urban employment/residential center, that is when you are going to have problems with sprawl. The most concerning point is that non-incorporated Whatcom County had the same level of permit activity!! Those are your rural lands, people.
We can argue about the rural element of the Whatcom County comprehensive plan all we want, but the reality is that until Bellingham begins to take more of the development, the ENTIRE county is at risk.
Trevor,
Chase is putting in a bank branch near Haggen; they’ve been going through the permit process for that project. I hadn’t heard about Jack in the Box, but I’ll check around and see what I can find out.
Perry,
Good points… In January Ferndale’s total permits/valuations was actually higher than Bellingham, which is startling given the size of the two communities. Bellingham tends to peak in May/June/July, posting much higher valuations than Ferndale or unincorporated Whatcom County (both Ferndale and unincorporated Whatcom tend to be steady month-to-month, with less seasonality, according to the last few years’ data).