Whatcom County I5 Infrastructure Study

The Port of Bellingham commissioned the Whatcom County I-5 Infrastructure Study project as part of their Regional Economic Partnership (REP) with Whatcom County. As the Associate Development Organization (ADO) for Whatcom County, the REP is responsible for economic development and growth for the entire county. There was no way for the organization to easily understand factors impacting development along the I-5 corridor region as a myriad of public and private parties in different formats held the data. This fragmented data environment hampered their ability to take a high-level view of important economic factors impacting county-wide decisions. 

The project focused on building a database and tools to identify the impacts of critical areas and utility access on the available Whatcom County buildable lands in the I-5 corridor region to assist the County in maintaining its commitments to both development and farmland in the area. The analysis aggregates a range of factors, including critical areas, zoning, and utility access, intended to help users assess the overall developability of a property. Data is stored in a manner that makes it more easily updateable in the future, and delivery is via a web application. As part of this project, three key solutions were achieved:

1. FLO developed a comprehensive GIS database that aggregated and normalized data from various local and regional sources. This simplified and standardized data structure made viewing the factors affecting the study area easier. Procedures and tools were developed to allow the data to be easily updated in the future. 
2. FLO developed a robust assessment matrix that weighed the various development factors and calculated a ranking for each property. This allowed users to quickly identify properties that could be improved and made more development-ready. To enable easy updates to the rankings, FLO developed spatial analysis procedures and tools.
3. FLO created an easy-to-use web map and tools that allowed users to visualize, access, and investigate the data directly on any device and at various scales. FLO's tool can compare the information available with aerial or other base maps to help them make more effective decisions.

FLO and the REP contacted the various entities with data that was of interest and consolidated it so it could be used in the analysis. This involved both public data as well as private and sensitive data. The latter was used solely for calculating the ranking matrix, while some of the data was made available in the web application to assist with visualization and understanding. While the database and tools were designed to make it easier to update the data, the web application allowed users to make high-level observations regarding the relative developability of properties and estimate the impacts of improving or adding new infrastructure and utilities on potentially buildable lands. This allowed Planning, Public Works, and Economic Development partners to assess better and make more efficient and effective decisions regarding infrastructure and development planning. It also allowed other parties, such as businesses, developers, community members, and other organizations, to access and utilize the data.