Year in review: Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee

The Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee (PRCAC) was created to provide advice and recommendation to the county executive and county council regarding needs and issues pertinent to the community. The county executive recommends membership of the unsalaried committee to the county council who certifies that membership.

Over the past calendar year, PRCAC has included on their agendas, discussed in duly noticed public hearings, and commented as necessary on the following:

• The scoping of the draft environmental impact statement for the 2025 Whatcom County comprehensive plan and development regulations;
• A potential Lighthouse Park dock and dog park;
• The archaeology review process necessary for Whidbey Telecom broadband expansion;
• The Whatcom Transportation Authority/Point Roberts Circle of Care memorandum of agreement to provide shuttle service to Bellingham and points in between;
• The Maple Beach Seawall reconstruction;
• The production of an economic development strategy by the Port of Bellingham;
• The Washington State Department of Commerce Community Decarbonization grants;
• The county’s work on a drainage master plan specific to Point Roberts;
• A Point Roberts Transportation Benefit District amendment via SB 6017 allowing funds wider range of allowable uses, to include presentations by the Whatcom County Public Works director as well as county council member Jon Scanlon;
• A conditional use permit 2024-05 for the Nielsen campground;
• Comment on the public participation plan and population and growth projections to county for the 2025 Whatcom County comprehensive plan update;
• A potential conditional use permit for the Point Roberts Food Bank;
• A conditional use permit 2024-03 for a transfer station upgrade;
• The West Shores Terminal fugitive coal dust in Delta, B.C.;
• The consideration of ArriveCan for dogs;
• The state of Washington watershed adjudication to include a presentation by the state department of ecology;
• Comment on the county’s interpretation of SSB 5290 to limit project review spatially, rather than temporally, via amendment to Whatcom County Codes 20 and 22;
• Future potable water sources for Point Roberts;
• The future potential paving of the Lily Point parking lot.

The above list should not be considered exhaustive, but more an accurate depiction of the overwhelming and broad range of issues and projects the PRCAC considered in 2024.