After community pushback led to cancellation of a proposed metal shredding facility, ABC Recycling put the land, including 10 acres zoned for heavy industrial usage, up for sale. It remains unclear who will buy it — and what will happen next.
Not long after the Port of Bellingham terminated its lease with a Canadian scrap metal recycling company last March, the company also withdrew its permit to build a metal shredder on Marine Drive, along the northwestern edge of Bellingham.
A year later, ABC Recycling has put the 19.69-acre property — zoned for Heavy Impact Industrial use — up for sale for $4 million. It bought the land in 2021 from Lehigh Northwest Cement Company for $3.57 million, according to Whatcom County Assessor’s records.
The sale of the property would bring an official end to the multiyear saga between ABC, local public officials and residents of neighborhoods surrounding the site. But it also raises questions about what the property’s future holds — and how it will affect both the local economy and nearby residents.
A listing for the sale was published in late March, according to Tracy Carpenter, a Gage Commercial Real Estate broker. She added there has already been interest in the property but could not comment on who any of the interested parties are.
Why sell now?
Riley Sweeney, a former community relations and government affairs manager for ABC Recycling, told Salish Current that the last conversation he had with the company regarding the property was in the summer of 2023.
That conversation, he wrote in an email, led him to believe the company would sit on the property until 2026, when the land was expected to be rezoned as part of the Whatcom County’s next comprehensive plan, which is scheduled for completion by year’s end. The rezone was expected to allow housing, Sweeney added, potentially quadrupling the property’s value.
But Sarah Gardner, the president of the Birchwood Neighborhood Association which strongly opposed ABC’s metal shredder due to concerns about the proposed facility’s impact on noise, truck traffic, pollution and fire hazards, said that the county is woefully behind in meeting its own deadline for a new comprehensive plan.
This has led to questions about why ABC is deciding to sell the property instead of waiting for that plan to be completed. Andy Anthony, vice president of U.S. operations for ABC, provided a succinct answer.
ABC’s original purchase of the site was “logistically strategic” to its operations in the Port of Bellingham, he wrote in a text message. Without an operation in the port, he added, the property was no longer needed.
Differing visions of the future
Gardner said she isn’t surprised that ABC put the property on the market but finds the possibility of another heavy industrial business buying the property worrisome.
The Birchwood Neighborhood Association wants the Marine Drive property rezoned from Heavy Impact Industrial to Light Impact Industrial or possibly to a mixed-use designation that might combine affordable housing with a business park similar to the Marine Drive Business Park just across the street, Gardner said.
That business park hosts a number of different businesses, including K’ul Chocolate and JH Kelly, a construction company. The Port of Bellingham also acquired what’s now the Marine Drive Industrial Park in 2023, just across Bennett Drive from the business park. It comprises industrial buildings, equipment and office space, helping support advanced manufacturing like boat builders and the operational expansion of Signs Plus.
Tyler Schroeder, the Port’s director of economic development, said there is strong demand and currently very limited supply for industrial spaces similar to the Marine Drive Industrial Park, which supports more than 50 jobs.
Urban fringe
ABC’s Marine Drive property is located in the Bellingham Urban Fringe Subarea, Schroeder said. Zoning allows for both heavy use, assuming it meets current development standards, and light use. Those standards require developments to be designed, constructed, operated and maintained in a way that’s “harmonious and appropriate” with an area’s character, he added. It also requires buffers from residential zones, including added performance standards for enclosures and appearance.
And those standards, he said, lend themselves to a type of facility or development that is similar to most advanced manufacturing facilities.
Gardner expressed hope that the port is being earnest in wanting to bring more advanced manufacturing companies to the area and said the local neighborhood associations will try to hold them to that.
Affordable housing would be especially great for the area, Gardner added, but would likely require a lot of remediation to render the property suitable after years of heavy industrial usage. A future in which ABC’s property falls into the hands of another heavy industrial tenant isn’t one Gardner’s side believes is the best, for numerous economic reasons.
In addition to hiring fewer people per square foot compared to low-impact businesses, Gardner noted that these businesses can leave an environmental footprint requiring remediation, which is often footed by taxpayers. These businesses also pay less in property taxes, she said.
Gardner is hopeful that heavy-impact truck traffic along Bennett Drive may be mitigated by whatever future use the ABC property sees; the land’s real estate listing notes a “favorable truck route” as a selling point, in additional to a possible rail spur.
When asked if there was any concern ABC might be trying to sell to another heavy-impact tenant before the property could be rezoned, Schroeder kept a positive mindset.
“The port has full confidence in Whatcom County’s ability to regulate heavy industrial activity through its zoning and permitting process, which includes full consideration of public comments on any potential impacts to the environment, health, safety, traffic, etc.,” he said.
Rezoning and postponing
Gardner said the local neighborhood associations have been trying to light a fire under the county council and county planning commission for rezoning, but things aren’t moving as they’d like.
“It’s like molasses in winter,” she said. “It’s been really hard to get them to do anything.”
Last July, the Whatcom County Council discussed a potential six-month moratorium on new heavy industrial uses in a city’s urban growth area. In the end, a unanimous vote held that the ordinance requires a public hearing and revision, which has yet to occur.
Schroeder said the port had not heard any new information regarding a moratorium.
“It is our understanding the Whatcom County Council is in the process of updating the comprehensive plan and may use the data/findings in the port’s Countywide Industrial Land and Employment Study to inform upcoming decisions through the comprehensive plan process,” he said.
Any rezoning, he added, requires careful consideration.
Gardner said neighborhood association members have come to county council meetings for three-minute public comment slots, but doing so is growing tiresome.
“It really requires a discussion,” she said. “A three-minute statement is nothing. It’s not an effective way to have a really good conversation in my opinion.”
Gardner said she only expects more and more tension in the Birchwood and Alderwood neighborhoods as density continues to grow.
“It’s such a no-brainer, in our minds, to put a moratorium on this until the comprehensive plan gets written and we figure out what’s going to happen with this,” she said. “We’re doing what we can to get them to change the zoning, but it’s a tough road.”
— By Matt Benoit
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Commentary: Where to, Whatcom County industrial lands?” July 22, 2024
• “Bellingham port hearing set for issuing bonds for modernization,” June 14, 2024
• “Noise, toxins, traffic concerns with proposed metal shredding,” Sept. 7, 2023
• “BC metal recycler may site shredder on Bellingham Bay,” May 12, 2023
• “Port promises to dampen loading noise in wake of complaints,” Jan. 26, 2023