Concurrency Management Program

City of Bellingham, WA

As part of an update of the City of Bellingham ’s Comprehensive Plan, Transpo worked with the City to develop and implement a concurrency management program to comply with the Growth Management Act. Along with the required compliance, additional objectives for the program included addressing traffic impacts from areas outside the City, ensuring that the program supports multi-modal travel and ties into CIP analysis and funding.

To implement the ordinance, Transpo developed a spreadsheet-based concurrency tracking tool. The tool combines traffic count data and traffic from proposed development projects to evaluate traffic conditions compared to the City’s standards. Transpo is working with City staff in implementing the ordinance as part of its development review process. To support the City Council’s understanding of how the City’s transportation system is currently operating, Transpo assisted the City in preparing its first Annual Concurrency Report. The annual report showed which arterials were currently projected to be operating at or above the adopted standards.