Whatcom Legacy Project

The Whatcom Legacy Project grew out of a desire and a need for a long range vision for Whatcom County and a deep interest in collaboratively managing the challenges associated with growth as a community. The idea for the project came about in discussions among community leaders from all sectors: business, conservation, real estate and government. It was clear that the community has not agreed upon a common direction—rather, community dialogue is scarce and characterized by significant disagreement over any proposed direction—and that an unusual step needed to be taken to protect the place we all share and value. Organizers were inspired by community based dialogue and vision projects conducted elsewhere, and developed an idea for a collaborative community-wide project to work with the public to enable them to draw their road map for a future that both conserves what the community values most, and creates the broadest possible consensus for balanced solutions to growth and change.

The Whatcom Legacy Project is a citizen led project. Its purpose is to enable the community to create an exciting vision and practical plan for Whatcom County’s future generations. Citizens of Whatcom County will work together to design, map and put in place a future that celebrates our shared values – an achievable, enduring vision for our future. The work will answer significant questions such as “What will Whatcom County look like far into the future?” “Is there a better way?” and “Where will people live, work and play?”

In short, this legacy vision will be designed and selected by the public to provide long range context for our planning, preservation, development and conservation efforts throughout the county. This is a pivotal time; our community is growing and rapidly changing. These changes – good, bad or indifferent – affect our options going forward. Planning ahead in an informed, thoughtful and deliberate manner is an optimal use of the public’s time and other resources. Conversely, planning reactively on a piecemeal basis is expensive and distracting. The opportunity to work together to choose our future is rare and limited in time. If we can plan well ahead of time, using an extensive and exceptional public process, then we have a greater likelihood of achieving a community vision we can all embrace and enjoy.

Our strategy is to approach these problems thoughtfully and thoroughly from the ground up through a community-led visioning effort: compile data to establish where we are now, analyze trends and then work with the community to understand trade-offs and map out where the community wants to be and how we get there.

It’s your community, share your ideas!

We hope you will help craft the community’s vision for Whatcom County’s future. If you have any questions, feedback, or comments please send us an email vision@whatcomlegacy.org or give us a call 360-738-2786