For the past two decades, the City of Bellingham has offered Maps and GIS (Geographic Information Services) Apps online. These digitalized versions of paper and mylar resources help inform residents on history, zoning, utilities, and other public considerations.
“Maps have been an integral part of the way the city operates from the very beginning of the city back in the late 1800s,” says IT Director Don Burdick. “We pay attention to our past and we plan the future, and our maps are a great way of doing that. And we have the opportunity to use all of that information to give the public a different perspective.”
The City of Bellingham website uses ArcGIS software by Esri to translate data into interactive story maps.
“Those online tools are becoming much more prevalent and heavily used because really all anybody needs is a web browser to view and interact with that information, making it really compelling,” says GIS Manager Ann Stark. “And you see, New York Times, NPR, or the news outlets have started using that as their story storage device as well.”
By using these tools, we can navigate Bellingham’s physical, cultural, historical, and information landscape with convenience and clarity.
Magical History Tours in Bellingham
The city’s Self-Guided Tours include photos, information, and interactive maps of Public Art Collections, Historic Downtown, and Old Highway 99.
“In 2007, we got a grant from federal and state,” says Kate Newell, Senior GIS Analyst at the Planning Department. “The state grant came from the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation to do surveying inventory of three neighborhoods: South Hill, Whatcom, and Sehome. So, with that grant money, we were able to hire historic preservation consultants. They, in conjunction with Jeff Jewell at the Photo Archives at Whatcom Museum, really were sort of like the experts for the history tour.”
Within Historic Downtown, the tours cover Bellingham, Sehome, Fairhaven, Bellingham Federal Building, and Highway 99.
“It’s a way to capture that history and make sure that it’s memorialized and those stories are captured and not forgotten,” says Newell. “And the best part about it is that we’re putting the place to it so it’s not just a picture or a story. We can know where that person lived and where they came from, so that spatial component of the history tours is really important. We’ve had middle school classes that have taken a tour just to learn more about their town, and they’ve been able to see buildings how they used to be and kind of imagine themselves in that space.”
Bellingham’s Interactive Map Data
The city’s other offerings include the Land Parcel Report, Aerial Photos, Active Capital Projects, Survey Data and Information for benchmarking, and CityIQ maps for zoning, parcels, utilities, trails, and more.
“The GIS data has been available to download and use for over 25 years and it’s our way of giving back to what the community has put into our management and resourcing of this,” says Burdick. “So it’s important that we’re really transparent about it, and as we see new opportunities to be transparent with the public, whether it’s through the CityIQ application or whether it’s through our story maps, whether it’s through the projects application, all of those, it’s our way of communicating to the public about what’s going on.”
City employees in the public works, utilities, fire department, police department, and others consult maps for work, and the general public has its own interests.
“I think most importantly, its access. You have access to the same data that the decision-makers have access to,” says Stark. “So our housing statistics story map was really important when housing issues became important. It provided the exact same data that the decision-makers were using, so it leveled the playing field essentially. And having access to things like City IQ just means you’re a better-informed citizen. You can find who your lawmakers are and how to access them, or you can find out where the bus stop is, what your neighborhood is called, and where the next meeting is.”
Mapping the Bellingham Community
Since their inception, the city’s GIS programs have received widespread recognition.
“We have nationally award-winning cartographers that work for the city and a lot of our mapping and the whole core of that is based on the work they’ve done,” says Burdick. “Our City IQ application won an international award, and so it’s a passion. The GIS team in the city is not in one department; it’s all over the place, and there are people in parks, public works, planning, and the 9-1-1 center. And all of them are a very cohesive team to build the tools and passionate about providing the information, so it’s a labor of love.”
As the programs help Bellingham locals navigate their community, they grow with public support and new technology.
“They will continue, and there is continued funding and just a continued effort, like we said, to use those new tools that are online,” says Stark. “And they get more complex and capable, so we’ll continue to build and evolve with them.”
For more information on the City of Bellingham’s GIS services, you can contact their IT department.
