Sunnyland demands hearing to discuss neighborhood plan

By Racquel Arceo

Sunnyland Neighborhood Association is yet to receive a date for a hearing to discuss their neighborhood plan.

In 2007 the former Washington State Department of Transportation lot, off East Sunset Drive next to Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, was sold to private owners David Edelstein and Greg Hinton.

The four-acre lot was previously a superfund area used for storing and containing hazardous material. According to co-owner Edelstein, the land is clean and safe.

“The state delivered it [the land] to us with a clean bill of health and the state of Washington guaranteed it was clean,” he said.

Since the sale, volunteers of the SNA assembled a neighborhood plan proposing new zoning for the area.

Edelstein said he is hoping for residential zoning but the issue is whether the neighborhood, the city, and himself and Hinton will agree on what sort of residential zoning should be given.

 “We spent many volunteer hours making the proposal,” said Pat McKee, SNA volunteer.

SNA has been waiting for a hearing date to be set by the Planning and Community Development Department for the city of Bellingham since presenting their plan on July 23, 2012.

McKee spoke to Jeff Thomas, Director of the Planning and Community Development Department on Feb. 5 to discuss the pending hearing but is yet to receive any commitment for a hearing date.

“That was my principal goal for the meeting, to set a date,” said McKee. “The first step in getting our proposal enacted in law is a planning hearing.”

The Bellingham municipal code requires department to process the SNA code in a timely manner, something that McKee feels he has not done.

“We are going to continue to put pressure on the planning director. [Thomas is] the person that has to assign staff to begin processing our amendment,” said McKee.

There has been speculation that the reason for the delay is the department is trying to first revise the Infill toolkit. The code under revision is currently used for only multi-living housing and will be reworked to accommodate single family housing as well.

“I don’t feel there’s any need to delay consideration of our plan,” said McKee. “Once the planning commission begins to consider our proposal they can suggest changes which could involve some of the new toolkit codes.”

McKee has also attempted to bring the situation to the mayor Kelli Linville hoping she could speed up the process and help get a hearing date set but he is yet to hear back from her.

“We are asking for a planning commission by March 31,” said McKee.

Once the zoning of the land is settled, there are no official plans for what the land will be used for.

“We have tried repeatedly to come up with plans for what the neighborhood and city think should be built there,” said Edelstein.

Avenue Bread wood carver

By Racquel Arceo

Avenue Bread may be known for its assortment of artisan breads, pastries, and soups but there is one item that isn’t feature on the menu. While searching for a table, customers may stumble upon a man whittling away.

About five days a week, for the past year and a half, Steve LaMarine turns a table in the diner in to his own personal workshop.

Since moving to Bellingham about eight and a half years a go to be closer to his daughter and her growing family, LaMarine has retired.

Before bringing his talent to Avenue Bread LaMarine would do pieces for friends and family sending his work across the country, like to Philadelphia and Atlanta.

LaMarine taught himself how to carve caricatures when he was just 16 but said that since he was a baby he had always been doing something with wood. Growing up his father was a carpenter so material was always available to him.

Since retirement LaMarine said he really started getting in to his carving and learning about it through different magazines.

“I think a lot of people who say they have no artistic ability are working in the wrong medium,” he said.

After stopping in for breakfast with his wife one morning LaMarine decided Avenue Bread would be a good place to carve.

“I started coming here because I don’t really have a place to work at home,” LaMarine said.

When he first started carving at Avenue Bread he would only work for 30-40 minutes during his breakfast, keeping quiet about what he was doing. Now LaMarine sits openly, for hours at a time, carving, keeping pieces proudly displayed in front of him for curious customers to see.

“It also explains why there’s a man sitting there with a sharp knife,” LaMarine said.

LaMarine enjoys working in Avenue Bread so often because of the atmosphere. He said he likes hearing the happy people around him talking and laughing.

“No one comes to a restaurant to fight, and that’s what I want to hear, laughter,” he said. “I’ve been photographed seven times by tourist. It really cracks me up.”

Working alone, LaMarine doesn’t produce enough pieces to sell commercially; in fact, when he first started, he wasn’t selling his work at all, just giving it away. 

“This last year was the first time I’ve ever sold anything,” he said.

He made the decision to start selling when there suddenly became a high demand in his turtle carvings. Being one of his favorite pieces to carve, LaMarine said his turtle is his trademark carving though his Santa Claus carvings are his best sellers.

Charging around three dollars an hour LaMarine doesn’t make much of a profit but, for him, that isn’t the point.

“I don’t want this to get to be a business where I’m working on deadlines, that takes the fun out of it. I didn’t retire from marketing just to switch to another stressful job, I don’t want to add more stress to my life,” LaMarine said. “[Carving is] something I do for fun, not for the money.”

Currently LaMarine is working on a few pieces to donate to animal rescue and a donkey he was commissioned to carve.
“A lot of the stuff I make, it’s the first time I’ve ever made it,” he said.

Carving in the restaurant LaMarine tries to be courteous, not just to the customers, but also to the staff, never leaving behind a mess.
LaMarine doesn’t do much in the ways of advertising, he said people mostly hear of him through word mouth but he is working on setting up a page on Facebook. For now, LaMarine can be contacted at slamarine@aol.com