Bellingham Railroad Avenue Plan

Bellingham Railroad Avenue Task Force and Department of Community Development, Bellingham, Washington

We conducted an overview assessment of market opportunities, land use patterns, transit service, police and security issues, urban design and redevelopment concepts for the revitalization of an historic 10-block special downtown district for the Railroad Avenue Task Force and Bellingham Department of Community Development.

Railroad Avenue was created by the historical alignment of the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia (BB&BC) Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad tracks, depots, maintenance facilities, and commercial freight terminals into downtown Bellingham at the turn of the century. The tracks and buildings have long since been declared surplus and absorbed into the downtown district. However, in recent years the original buildings fronting onto the Avenue had begun to develop into a specialty retail district. Consequently, the city commissioned this study to determine the opportunities that could be realized from an action plan and strategy.

We conducted a series of workshop sessions with a Railroad Avenue merchant task force, public forums with district merchants and property owners, and a public customer behavioral survey of alternative market activity and design/development concepts. Using the workshop and survey results, we created detailed concepts for the development of permanent facilities for the Bellingham Farmers Market using former sites and designs of the historic Bellingham Bay & British Columbia (BB&BC) Railroad roundhouse, depot, and maintenance shops.

The Merchant’s Task Force successfully accomplished the Farmers Market plan and a number of other marketing actions before the study was even submitted for formal approval by City Council.