LEED neighborhood development assessment: the Fountain District

The Fountain District of Bellingham, Washington offers the perfect location for a LEED-ND development project. In 2007 residents from the Columbia, Cornwall Park and Lettered Streets Neighborhoods launched an outreach to revamp the commercial area commonly known as the Fountain District (City of Bellingham, 2009). Since 2007 the City of Bellingham has been formulating an Urban Village master plan for the Fountain District and based on those plans we developed our site design proposal. The Fountain District encompasses the area of Meridian Street beginning at the intersection of Illinois and running south to the intersections of Girard and Broadway, providing great connectivity throughout the district and into neighboring neighborhoods. The area is already developed therefore offering a perfect location for LEED-ND based redevelopment. The site is an ideal candidate for development to deal with the projected growth Bellingham will face in the years to come. Redevelopment will revitalize the Fountain District by providing new amenities in an urban village form, as well as increasing the overall aesthetics of the neighborhood and the overall usefulness of the area. In addition redeveloping the Fountain District will help to protect Whatcom County\u27s valuable farmland from sprawl by reducing land consumption. The Fountain District provides a smart location for infill development because of its proximity to public transportation as well as jobs in the commercial core along Meridian Street. The proximity to public transportation as well as bicycle and pedestrian friendly streets offer the potential for a more walkable community. Encouraging public transportation and the use of bicycles and walking will lower resident\u27s dependence on motor vehicles and lower the congestion around the area as well as lower the community\u27s dependence on fossil fuels. The proposed alternative development will include the addition of six new buildings as well as the renovation of three existing buildings from which the design was based on citizen input. In addition, several street improvements have been added to increase the walkability of the neighborhood including lowering the speed limit and adding crosswalks. See Appendix C for design proposals. With the proposed design the Fountain District could potentially reach GOLD LEED Certification