About 60 members of the Ferndale community attended a meeting Wednesday evening, January 23rd, hosted by the City of Ferndale, Ferndale Chamber of Commerce and WWU’s Huxley College of Urban Planning to answer students’ questions about the Ferndale Historic District. Answers collected will be used to develop recommendations and strategies for increasing development in the downtown area.
The students had prepared several stations inside the Pioneer Park Pavilion Community Center where attendees could provide opinions and insights which the students recorded.
The stations included:
- Land use
- Visual preferences
- Parks, streetscape, art, culture
- Mobility and transportation
- Natural hazards
- Kids ideas
Attendees were broken up into groups and which then spent about 15 minutes at each station answering questions and participating in discussions with the students.
According to city staff, they expect to receive reports of professional consultant quality as a result of the contracted services but at a fraction of the overall cost of a consultant as a result of this partnership. The day before the meeting, Ferndale City Council unanimously approved a $21,000 agreement with WWU for the services.
