Name: Bellingham City Council - Planning Committee meeting, Apr 13, 2026
Start: 2026-04-13
End: 2026-04-13
Location: City of Bellingham

City Council - Planning Committee

Mon, April 13, 2026

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Meeting summaryAI-generated

City Council Planning Committee — April 13, 2026

This was a work session of the Planning Committee, chaired by Council President Pro Tem Hollie Huthman and joined by Councilmembers Lisa Anderson and Michael Lilliquist (plus At-Large Councilmember Jace Cotton, who participated with questions). No binding legislative votes were taken; the session was informational and deliberative, with two procedural motions passed to direct staff.

2025 Landlord and Property Manager Survey Results — Discussion

Background: In June 2025, the City Council adopted ordinances prohibiting unfair and excessive fees for residential rental units. Those ordinances took effect in August 2025. To gather early baseline data on the impact of the new regulations — as well as the existing rental registration and safety inspection program — Council staff launched a survey targeting landlords and property managers. The survey was timed to coincide with the annual rental registration mailing in October 2025, making distribution low-cost and broad. Results were first presented at the March 9, 2026 regular Council meeting; this work session allowed more in-depth discussion than the evening meeting format had permitted.

Legislative Policy Analyst Iris (last name unclear from transcript) presented the findings, including supplemental graphs prepared for this session. The new materials broke down responses in two additional ways: (1) utilities-related questions split between landlords and property managers, and (2) results filtered to "mom-and-pop" landlords — defined as those owning a single unit and managing it themselves or through a friend or family member.

Key findings discussed: The mom-and-pop breakdown was of particular interest to the committee. Councilmember Lilliquist noted that a major concern at the time the ordinances passed was that regulations would be disproportionately burdensome on small, non-professional landlords — people who own a single rental property as a retirement investment rather than operating as professional property managers. The survey data showed the opposite pattern: mom-and-pop landlords reported it was *easier* to understand the regulations and the inspection process, and they made fewer changes to their practices than professional property managers did. For example, when asked whether they changed their pet acceptance policy, 11% of all landlords said yes, compared to only 6% of mom-and-pop landlords.

Lilliquist characterized this as reassuring: "It looks like we didn't" over-regulate in a way that caught amateurs in an unworkable net. However, staff cautioned that the open-ended written comments (over 100 pages, available in the March 9 packet) added nuance: some mom-and-pop landlords expressed fear of being out of compliance due to frequent regulatory changes, even if they weren't reporting having to make many changes. About 11% of mom-and-pop respondents said the new regulations were difficult to understand, and 14% found the registration requirements difficult — roughly half to one-third the rates reported by professional property managers, but not negligible.

Planning and Community Development Director Blake Lyon announced two upcoming community events: a screening of the film *Decade of Fire* with a panel discussion on fair housing history on April 22, and an educational session on rental regulations for landlords and tenants on April 28 at 3:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

Motion 1 — Tenant survey: Councilmember Huthman moved to direct staff to look into the feasibility of conducting a similar information-gathering effort targeting *tenants* rather than landlords. Councilmember Anderson seconded. Anderson emphasized that measuring the success or failure of the ordinances requires hearing from tenants about what has changed for them — both positive impacts and potential negative ones. Staff noted that reaching tenants would require a different approach than the landlord survey, since the city has a ready database of landlord contacts but no equivalent list for tenants, and that more thought would be needed about what to ask and how to reach respondents.

Vote: All three committee members in favor; none opposed. Motion carries. Huthman indicated she would bring it to the full Council later that evening.

Motion 2 — Follow-up landlord survey: The committee also discussed whether to repeat the landlord survey approximately one year later to track changes over time. Staff indicated the October registration mailing cycle would again be the ideal moment. Councilmember Huthman moved that staff preliminarily assess what a follow-up survey would entail.

Vote: All in favor; none opposed. Motion carries. Also to be brought to the full Council that evening.

Manufactured home communities: At-Large Councilmember Cotton, participating from the broader Council, asked the committee to consider whether future data collection could also track impacts on manufactured home community residents — a large segment of the city's rental population affected by space rent increases. Anderson agreed tracking would be valuable but noted it would need to be a separate survey effort, given the distinct legal and regulatory context. Lilliquist expressed interest and asked staff whether a lower-effort starting point might exist. Staff said they would need time to consider the question. Mayor Kim Lund noted that the city is preparing to bring forward a resolution establishing a Rental Advisory Group at the next Council meeting, suggesting that body could help shape future data-gathering questions, including around manufactured homes.

No motion was made on the manufactured home community question; it was left for further consideration.

Key Takeaways

Mom-and-pop landlords were less burdened than feared: Survey data showed small, single-unit landlords found the 2025 rental regulations easier to understand and comply with than professional property managers — the opposite of what critics predicted when the ordinances passed.

Tenant voices are missing from the data: The committee unanimously directed staff to explore how to survey tenants about the impact of the regulations, recognizing that a full picture of policy effectiveness requires both sides of the rental relationship.

A follow-up landlord survey is being planned: Staff were directed to assess the feasibility of repeating the survey in October 2026, aligned with the annual registration mailing cycle, to track changes over time.

Manufactured home residents may be added to future data collection: Councilmember Cotton raised the issue; no formal direction was given, but it will likely be revisited through the upcoming Rental Advisory Group process.

Upcoming community education events: Residents can learn more about rental regulations at a fair housing film screening on April 22 and a landlord/tenant information session on April 28 at 3:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.

What happened at this meeting

A work session to discuss the results of the 2025 landlord and property manager survey

# Summary

Staff presented results from a 2025 landlord and property manager survey conducted after the Council adopted ordinances regarding unfair and excessive rental fees, with Legislative Policy Analyst Ira Snot explaining that supplemental graphs broke down responses by landlords versus property managers and included separate data for "mom-and-pop" single-unit owners. Councilmember Lilquist reported that contrary to initial concerns, mom-and-pop landlords found the new regulations easier to understand and comply with than professional property managers, though some expressed concerns about frequent changes creating fear of non-compliance. Councilmember Huffman questioned the survey timing (conducted in October, four months after the June ordinance adoption) and requested tenant outreach, leading to a unanimous Council motion requesting that staff explore gathering similar survey information from tenants to understand their perspectives on regulatory impacts. Councilmembers Cotton and Anderson advocated for tracking impacts on manufactured home communities and residents in future data collection, with Ms. Knight indicating she would assess the feasibility of gathering such data, and staff noting that an upcoming rental advisory group resolution could help inform questions for future surveys. Director Blake Lyon announced upcoming fair housing law and rental regulations informational sessions scheduled for April 22nd and April 28th.

Agenda items (1)

Procedural (1)

24889ProceduralA work session to discuss the results of the 2025 landlord and property manager survey

City leaders will review findings from a survey of Bellingham landlords and property managers to discuss what they learned about rental housing issues and practices in the community.

What happened

Additional votes recorded in minutes

Request staff to research process for gathering survey questions from tenants

aye 3

Hollie Huthmanaye

Lisa Andersonaye

Michael Lilliquistaye

Request staff to explore follow-up survey to landlords and property managers

aye 3

Hollie Huthmanaye

Lisa Andersonaye

Michael Lilliquistaye

Verbatim transcript available

58 transcript segments indexed

City of Bellingham Planning Committee minutes April 13, 2026, 1:35 PM Chair: Hollie Huthman Phone: 360-778-8200 Members: Lisa Anderson, Michael Lilliquist Email: ccmail@cob.org Web: cob.org/council City Council committee meetings Standing committee members receive reports and information, ask questions, and vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the regular meeting.

Okay, brief break is over, welcome back. The next committee this afternoon is a planning committee and that is chaired by Councilmember Huffman. So, I'll turn it over to her. Thank you, Council President.

There is no public comment period during committee sessions. Call to order and roll call Council President Stone called the meeting to order at 1:48 p.m. Present: Committee Chair Hollie Huthman, Second Ward Committee Member Lisa Anderson, Fifth Ward (Attended remotely) Committee Member Michael Lilliquist, Sixth Ward Planning 24889 1.

Today for the planning committee, I'm joined by Councilmembers Anderson and Lilliquist. We have one agenda item. It's agenda bill 24889. This is a work session to discuss the results of the 2025 landlord and property manager survey.

After passing ordinances regarding unfair and excessive fees for residential rental units in 2025, Council staff launched a survey for landlords and property managers in Bellingham. The survey sought to gather data and open-ended feedback about the impact of the new rental regulations, as well as the rental registration and safety inspection program.

A work session to discuss the results of the 2025 landlord and property manager survey Summary: Iris Nott, Legislative Policy Analyst, returned to Council to further discuss results of the 2025 landlord and property manager survey.

The work session will allow Council members to further discuss the survey results that were presented during March 9th, 2026 regular Council meeting. And here to present uh start off the conversation is our legislative policy analyst, Ira Snot.

Action: Hollie Huthman moved to request City Council staff to research a process on how to gather similar survey questions from tenants. MOTION CARRIED 3-0. Action: Michael Lilliquist moved to request City Council staff to explore a follow-up survey to landlord and property managers.

Thank you. Um so, as uh Councilmember Huffman said, uh this is just a work session for the Council to kind of discuss and follow up. Um you'll recall that this was presented during the evening meetings, so there wasn't a lengthy amount of time to kind of follow up and have a discussion.

So, this opportunity is for Council to discuss both the results and any other um items related to the results of this that have come about. Uh in the packet, you'll notice that there are supplemental graphs.

So, there's the original report minus the over 100 pages of comments, uh which you can still refer to back in the March 9th packet, but the original report as well as the supplemental graphs, which only cover the uh utilities questions split between landlords and property managers, which was requested, and then just mom-and-pop survey results.

So, those are for only landlords that own their own one unit and either manage it themselves or have a friend or relative manage it for themselves. Uh so, these are the mom and pop. This is the best way we were able to without a lot of more detailed analysis kind of compare just the number one.

So, if you we go to number two, people that own two units, we get into a little bit more of the data analysis that we have to run some more numbers. So, this is just one one unit um and it includes both the self-managed and friend and relative who are typically a daughter, a a father, a mother that are running a unit for someone else.

Maybe they're out of town and some other friend or relative is helping them manage it on site or in in town. And you'll note that the results are fairly similar to all landlords. You'll see that the the sort of proportions on the pie charts don't really change even if the percentages are slightly different.

For example, when asked about pets and whether or not they anyone change their policy about accepting pets, overall the landlords that said yes, all of all landlords was 11%. If you look at just mom and pop, it's 6%.

So, they tend to be a little bit more narrow in their results when they say that they've made changes, but they tend to follow the same streamline. So, that is part of the reason that we originally just split it between landlords and property managers instead of breaking into individual groups.

Um but, this is split up just to compare. So, this is an opportunity for you to discuss and at the end of this, my only recommendation would be um whether or not you guys are interested in having a follow-up survey following this.

Uh potentially, timing-wise, if we wanted to repeat a survey, uh we used the mailing list and the contact the timing of it was designed in October to be mailed out with a flyer that went out with everybody's annual registration notice.

So, timing-wise, that would be an ideal replication time. All right. Thank you, Iris committee. I can go ahead and start. Um so, we we did this uh survey for landlords and property managers uh relatively soon after um we passed the ordinance.

Um can you Iris, can you um speak to a little bit why we chose the timing for this survey? Um and then as well as um any thoughts about a similar information gathering um endeavor for tenants. Yeah, so I'll address the timing of the original report first.

So, when the when we adopted the ordinances, it was in June, and they became effective in August. Um and the timing of this was there was a request at that time to kind of start collecting data and discussion about how to do that.

We ultimately decided that the timing of it in October one lined up with the mailing the physical mailing. It created a really cost, you know, cost-minimal approach to providing contact to all landlords.

So, the timing of it being in October had to do with the annual registration notice. Um doing an early outreach was try try and get a baseline set of data early on so that we could have a replicable survey if we wanted to um in the future.

And then we have a a database of landlords, so it's relatively low cost and accessible for us to out to to reach them. So, that is why we we chose this landlord survey. Um in addition, we had received input from landlords that requested that they wanted to be heard from and so we were able to kind of combine all of those factors into an October survey that went out in a timely manner with the rental registration notice.

Um, as to uh other outreach opportunities outside of repeating the landlord survey, uh at this time the council staff has not identified any um next steps on that, but we are open to looking into that and seeing what is an option.

Um, it is a different kind of approach, right? We had a list of contacts, we had the emails of the landlords, we were really able to reach them pretty pretty easily um comparatively. With tenants, it would be a different approach and so I would want to take some time to figure out what we're trying to ask, what we're trying to measure, and um figure out what the best approach would be.

Um, I would be interested in making a motion for the committee to consider to request that uh council staff looks into the the potential process for obtaining information from tenants as well. Um, to see if there are some next steps that we could consider for that.

So, that would be that would be my motion. If you need a second, I'll second it. I'm sorry, could you restate the motion? I think Council member Anderson might have second. Uh, to have ask council staff to look into the process of requesting similar information as the survey, um but targeting tenants instead.

Council member Anderson? Thank you. Um, thank you Council member Huffman, that was uh going to be a request I was going to make. Um I I do think we need to follow up the survey with the landlords cuz now that we've had 1 year, but I also think it's really important to get the perspective of the tenants.

So, if there's any way we can duplicate because the landlords who um basically with rental registration, we know where those addresses are that are rentals. And I think it's really important to find out what type of impacts um you know, what what changes have happened since the implementation of this because if we're going to measure success and potential pitfalls, we have to understand um the perspective of the tenants.

Um what is working for them and perhaps what may have negatively impacted them. Um so, I think it's really important that we have both voices at the table when it comes to the data collection um if we're going to be able to make future decisions.

Thank you, Council member Anderson. So, I I think the committee can vote on this motion, correct? Okay. So, I will go ahead and call the question. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay, I'll go ahead and bring that to the full council later tonight.

Um any further questions? Council member Lilquist. Um I really appreciate Well, first of all, I just like the the basic research um but also the the breakdown to try to identify what we might call mom-and-pop um renters because a lot of the discussion at the time is that these new regulations would be particularly difficult for your amateurs.

For someone who just owned a house as a kind of a retirement investment or something like that. They weren't professionals. They weren't speculators in rental real estate. That wasn't their job. Um and what's fascinating is that it appears to be the opposite pattern.

That the mom-and-pops actually report reliably that it was easier for them to understand and easier for them to comply with the inspection process, with what understand what the requirements are, understand the regulations, that the you know, maybe surprisingly, the mom-and-pops were expressed that they were least affected by that.

They made the least number of changes. Um, I think that's good news. Um, and I don't think it's because the professional property managers aren't good at their job. I just think that they have more complex situations and more diverse situations and more diverse properties that they're managing.

And I can't really fix that part of it. It it they have a complicated job and they have a broad portfolio. Um, but I do think it's good news that these regulations were not so overwritten that those very simple situations were caught in this net, which made no sense for them.

That it's apparently uh, you know, not that not that some of the mom-and-pops didn't have difficulty, but that percentage was remarkably lower than overall. And lower than the property managers. So, that I would really appreciate it and cuz that's the question I wanted to answer.

Did we regulate in a way for an industry which unfortunately caught up people who were sort of amateurs in this? And it looks like we didn't. Um, I will just go back to the the open-ended comments as well to provide some more nuance to that where they they weren't as impacted in the survey results in terms of having to change make the changes, having to do the changes, but there is a lot of feedback of feeling fear that they're out of compliance because there's so many frequent changes and that the uh, the complexity of the changes is challenging to navigate and be informed.

So, part of that is just the being thoughtful about what we're trying to regulate and how complicated we make it. Um, and so that that nuance is definitely in there in terms of the open-ended comments, but it's not so much in this just straight graphics.

Yeah, what I'm seeing is that on the can I understand the regulations front, you still have what 11% of mom and pops who say it's difficult to understand the new regulations. And what is it? Looks like there's 14% who say it's difficult to understand the registration requirements.

So there there's a small component who find it difficult. Just that those numbers are like half or a third of that for the professional managers. That's right. Yeah. If I may, um, Blake Lyon, Director of Planning and Community Development.

I just wanted to put a quick plug in. Uh, this month, uh, we have a couple fair housing, uh, law and rental regulations events. There's a a film and a panel session on April 22nd, uh, that's happening.

And it talks a little bit about some of the history, uh, in our in our nation about redlining and resiliency to that. So that's a um, Decade of Fire is a film that's going to be, uh, um, played and then they'll have a panel discussion after that.

There's information on the city's website in that respect. And then on April 28th, in the chambers here at 3:30, there's going to be a session about, um, learning a little bit more about the changing laws and landscape for, uh, those that might be new landlords and or tenants that want to get a little more information about, uh, the new rental regist- regulations and some of the stuff there.

So trying to help with that outreach as well. Any further questions or comments from committee? Can move to council. Council members? Council member Cotton? Um, I wonder if the committee might entertain, um, adding to your earlier motion for staff to, um, think a a bit more about tracking, um, impacts for manufactured home communities and residents.

I think we we often, because it is a much larger portion of our community, spend a lot of time thinking about residential landlord tenant situations, but be interested to see similar data sets in the future if that wasn't a huge burden to to staff.

So, um an idea for the committee to consider. Council member Anderson. I think it would be good to track, but I also think it'd be a very separate survey. Um there is the aspect that there are people who rent in these manufactured home, but with some of the changes that have gone on, I know I hear from um multiple people about their space rent going up and up and up and the impacts on um they're perceived that, you know, since we've changed where um owners can't necessarily just go clear everybody out and rezone and rebuild.

Um we know some of the larger areas and I think we've all gotten emails from people about being priced at a space rent. It would be nice to be able to gather that information and see what kind of impacts and um see if there's anything that we can do administratively or legislatively to um help deal with uh displacement of people.

We have some good things um I think you know, best efforts, but um I also see there's ways to get around it. Council member Loquist. Yes, I'm I'm interested in entertaining Councilmember Cotton's suggestion.

Um it is kind of a quite a separate topic and so I'm wondering if Ms. Knight you Do you any thoughts on kind of a lower effort way to start to look at that question or is it kind of like so different you have to think about it whether or not it's a huge project or do you see an easy path forward on that kind of idea?

I would want to think about that before I answer. >> Mayor? Um I think this ties somewhat this conversation to the resolution we're working on right now to bring forward a rental advisory group. We anticipate that coming forward at the next council meeting and so as we're looking uh the voices on that working group and also the question of what do we want to know?

What are the questions we should be asking? I think that is a body that could help inform some of that. So I just wanted to say that that is coming shortly. So Fantastic. Uh questions comments from other council members?

Okay and I think um I receive also requested um direction from the the council on the committee and council on um a follow-up survey in a year to to recreate the survey to um would the committee be interested in discussing that or making that motion as well?

Sure I'll make a motion that we uh accept the staff's recommendation that preliminarily they look into what it would take to do the follow-up. Further discussion? Okay all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstentions?

Okay I will bring that to the full council tonight. Okay anything further for the committee? This was for information and discussion only. Um and that was our only agenda item. So, I will that ends the committee and I'll turn it back to the Council President.