Birch Bay is no longer
just a resort community
Population explosion has leaders eyeing incorporation
(Part one of a two part series on the Blaine/Birch Bay area)
by Lauren Kramer


If it’s been a while since you last visited Birch Bay, you’d do well to venture this way and take a slow meander along the beachfront’s 700 acres of tideland. The once-small resort community is witnessing a population explosion, with new homes and retail outlets under development and many exciting plans for the near future.
Primary among them is the issue of incorporation. “We have about 6,000 residents right now, which means we’re bigger than Everson, Nooksack and Sumas combined, all of which are cities,” said Mike Kent, a Birch Bay resident and realtor with Windermere Real Estate.
Initially, incorporation was only one option for Birch Bay. The other was annexation to the City of Blaine.
“We approached the City of Blaine to discuss annexation, but they didn’t’ express an opinion one way or another – they left it up to us,” Kent said.
The Birch Bay Steering Committee was concerned that annexation to Blaine might create sprawl, and also felt that the two communities were sufficiently different to warrant distinct identities. So when it came to the crunch, incorporation was enthusiastically embraced.
“Incorporation is a normal evolutionary process for an urban growth area once it hits a certain size,” said Bill Grant, chairman of the subcommittee for economic development, an arm of the Birch Bay Steering Committee.

Exploding numbers
What distinguishes Birch Bay, however, is the sheer speed at which urban growth is occurring. Between 1990 and 2000, the community grew a whopping 87 percent, with the arrival of 1,500 new residents in the past five years. The estimated population for 2020 is 9,000, but it’s unrealistic, Grant said.
“Over the next three years, 1,200-to-1,500 new residences will be established in the urban growth area, so the population of Birch Bay will probably reach that 20-year projection in five years,” he said.
The resort community’s demographic is also in flux. It used to be dominated by a few year-round retirees and a handful of Canadians who would drive south in the spring and summer. Now, the seasonal Canadians are selling out, and, according to Kent, large numbers of southern Californians are picking up their properties and moving to Birch Bay to retire.
But there are also a growing number of young families taking up residence in Birch Bay. “There are more children in the Blaine school district coming out of Birch Bay than coming out of Blaine,” Kent said. “I’ve been told two-and-a-half busloads of kids a day are coming from Birch Bay Village alone. So there’s also discussion of bringing an elementary school to Birch Bay.”

Incorporation implications
Incorporating Birch Bay would mean area residents could choose their preferred level of services for fire, public safety, transportation, water and sewer, schools and parks and recreation. They could also manage their own growth pattern rather than have it managed for them by Whatcom County. Public safety is one example.
“Right now we rely on the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Department, and they don’t have the capacity or ability to cover our area the way we’d like them to,” Kent said. “The No. 1 concern Birch Bay residents have is what it will cost, particularly if we’re looking to increase our services. It will still be a lengthy process to determine if incorporation is indeed possible.”

Stall the Sprawl
The Steering Committee has diligently worked to ensure that the plan for Birch Bay’s growth prevents sprawl. “The plan calls for specific areas for high density housing,” Grant said. The 288 acres at Blaine and Alderson roads is one area zoned for high density housing, permitting 24 multi-family units per acre. At Blaine and Birch Bay roads, zoning permits 18 residential units per acre, and a third site at Shintapper and Lincoln streets has similar zoning.
“There will be more than 1,000 new addresses in Birch Bay in the next three years, a mix of condominiums, apartments and single family homes,” Kent said.
Among those developments is Malibu Estates, single-family housing near Point Whitehorn. Baycrest by Homestead is selling its third phase at present, “and they’re selling those homes faster than they can bring them on the market,” Kent added.
Baycrest North by D.B. Johnson is a budding subdivision where, at press time, 26 units were all ready pending, and the sales office had only been open a month. And the Sandcastle Project, in the heart of Birch Bay, is under construction.
“It was originally intended to be condominiums, but was purchased by Whistler-based Whisky Jack Resort,” Kent said. Now, the intention is that it be turned into timeshare with a few retail ventures on the ground floors, including a day spa by Ellen Shea, who spearheaded the Chrysalis in Fairhaven.
Finally, the former Birch Bay Resort Park, a 30-acre parcel at Birch Bay-Lynden road and Birch Bay drive, has been acquired by a Las Vegas interest. Presently in the process of evaluating the property, its new owners will likely turn it into a mix of retail and resort commercial, Kent predicted.

Bring on the Grocer
With all this growth, Birch Bay residents are looking forward to the opening of Birch Bay Square on the site of the former Peace Arch Factory Outlets. Brian Finnegan, head of leasing and property management for the square, said its owners have signed on a “boutique grocer tended towards a high-end demographic” which will occupy a 20,000-square-foot space. “It’s not Trader Joe’s,” he said, guessing that the store will open at the end of 2005 or by Spring 2006.
Finnegan has high hopes for this 130,000-square-foot center.
“It’s going to be the flagship commercial center for the Northwest portion of the county, pulling customers from Birch Bay and the whole Northwest Whatcom area, from Ferndale and Lynden to Blaine,” he said. “Everyone wants it to happen right away, but it’s a substantial development and the Ware family is committed to doing it the right way. This is a long-term hold for them, not a fix-it-up-and-sell-it kind of project.”
Right now, his challenge is showing potential retailers at the square just how fast Birch Bay’s population is growing.
“The last official number I saw on Birch Bay was 4,500, but I suspect it’s closer to 6,000 now, and will reach 10,000 in a couple of years,” Finnegan said. “No one has the actual number – these are guestimates based on new home development demands in the area. Basically, it’s a resort community changing at a phenomenal growth rate.”