City of Blaine to consider de-annexing Grandis Pond, swapping urban growth areas

City of Blaine planning staff is in the early stages of creating a proposal to de-annex the Grandis Pond property and add 460 acres of urban growth area (UGA) southwest of Semiahmoo, among other UGA changes, in its comprehensive plan update.

“We’re at the very, very beginning of this whole thing,” Community Services Department director Alex Wenger said. “We put this out-of-the-box option on the table because we think there will be a significant decreased burden on taxpayers and it would preserve natural resources in east Blaine.”

Wenger said de-annexing Grandis Pond out of both the city and its UGA would likely require a supermajority vote needing a 60 percent approval by voters.

The city is also considering adding 124 acres of UGA near Harvey Road and is looking at rezoning an adjacent, 455-acre UGA for manufacturing use. The plan would remove 37 acres of unincorporated UGA near the mouth of Dakota Creek that isn’t suited for development and add a UGA reserve in two areas totaling nearly 300 acres southwest of Semiahmoo that wouldn’t be developed until years into the future.

In total, the city’s amount of UGA would decrease by five acres. Wenger said the city wasn’t considering increasing its number of UGAs because there is developable land within city limits where development will be prioritized.

UGAs around a city are designated areas where growth is encouraged through higher density and intended to include enough land to accommodate the city’s long-term growth. They are created in collaboration between the city and county, ultimately receiving approval by the state.

The UGA changes are part of the city’s comprehensive plan update, the main planning document which will guide growth for the next 20 years. Both the city and Whatcom County are conducting decennial updates of their comprehensive plans that are due by December 31, 2025.

The proposed UGA swaps come after Blossom Management developer Ken Hertz sold Grandis Pond to east Blaine residents Kevin Keck and Rebeka Ruiz-Lembo for $10 million in December 2023. Grandis Pond is considered the largest area slated for housing development in Whatcom County with 440 acres that were planned for over 1,100 residential units abutting the city’s eastern limits.

Wenger told city council during its October 14 meeting that he was concerned the Grandis Pond housing project would not be developed as construction would need to start by July 13, 2025, when the land use entitlements expire, and construction plans haven’t been submitted to the city for approval. City council could extend the entitlements but the developers would need to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances for council to consider it. Wenger said he had reached out to the couple three times since their purchase, only hearing back from them after the first query in February 2024.

Keck did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Keck’s LinkedIn account shows he had a career as a software engineer at several businesses including LinkedIn and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and his work now includes being owner of Grandis Pond Equity and being an angel investor.

The city annexed the area in 1996 for Grandis Pond, but the development stalled because of the expense of bringing utility infrastructure to the area.

Grandis Pond and 112 acres of adjacent land have forested wetlands, ponds and aquifer recharge areas, which would make road and infrastructure improvements costly, according to the city. The city is also concerned with long-term operation and maintenance costs.

“The area has been in the city for approximately 30 years, and we’ve been trying to develop it, but it’s very costly,” Wenger said.

City councilmembers Richard May and Sonia Hurt said they were in support of de-annexing Grandis Pond during the October 14 council meeting.

By de-annexing Grandis Pond, it would return the property to its rural designation which would protect the Blaine aquifer recharge area and other natural resources. If developed, Grandis Pond would have a much lower housing density under rural county zoning.

The city isn’t able to start diving into updating its comprehensive plan until Blaine City Council approves a nonbinding resolution for growth numbers that would provide four levels of projected population and employment numbers over the next 20 years. The resolution is expected to go before council at its next meeting on Monday, October 28.

Right now, the city projects there could be a medium population growth of 2,774 people and employment growth of 1,092 people in the next 20 years.

Also, council will be asked to approve a resolution describing its public engagement efforts throughout the comprehensive plan update process. Currently, the city is planning to hold open houses and work sessions with the planning commission and council to discuss the comprehensive plan with the public.

“We took a look at where we could get the most bang for our buck in terms of industrial and housing land and pick up the fewest liabilities,” city manager Mike Harmon said of swapping the UGAs.