Next Tuesday, the Whatcom County Council will be holding a public hearing regarding proposed changes to its urban growth areas (UGAs). The current proposal eliminates much of the existing Ferndale and Blaine UGAs and also removes portions of the Bellingham and Lynden UGAs.

Advocates for reducing the size of UGAs throughout Whatcom County do so on the basis of limiting and/or halting “sprawl.” Although the term “sprawl” often gets bandied about in land use discussions, the term is rarely used correctly.

Sprawl is often used as a catch-all term to encompass any type of development outside of an established neighborhood. Washington’s Growth Management Act, however, refers to “sprawl” as the inappropriate conversion of undeveloped land into sprawling, low-density development. Thus, sprawl is not development in or expansion of an urban growth area per se.

Cities, especially Bellingham, have had a difficult time promoting the infilling and densification of existing neighborhoods. As a consequence, denser development has occurred at the edges of cities and outside of city limits and within adjacent urban growth areas.

Development at the edge of a city or within its urban growth area is not “sprawl” if the development is urban in nature. Residential development at more than 4 units per acre and/or commercial or mixed use development adequately served by utilities and transportation facilities are examples of urban types of development.