“Adequate multimodal transportation facilities and services” means pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and arterial street facilities which have the capacity to serve development while meeting the city’s adopted level of service (LOS) standards.

“Arterial street” means any street that the public works department has classified and adopted as a primary, secondary, or collector arterial in the transportation element of the Bellingham comprehensive plan.

“Calculated level of service (LOS)” means the assessment of the number of person trips available in the committed multimodal transportation system compared to the multimodal transportation demands of new development, measured in person trips available.

“Committed multimodal transportation system” means the entire system of multimodal transportation facilities and services used to calculate person trips available relative to a development proposal. It includes existing and proposed pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and arterial street facilities and services, which are adopted in the transportation element of the Bellingham comprehensive plan with a financial commitment for construction in the first, second, or third years of the most current adopted six-year transportation improvement program, or for which other financial commitments have been secured. Related components of the committed multimodal transportation system include:

“Concurrency” means that adequate transportation facilities are in place at the time of development approval or that a financial commitment is in place to complete the improvements or strategies needed for adequate transportation facilities within six years. Bellingham requires completion of adequate transportation facilities within three years. Concurrency, as required by the 1990 Growth Management Act (RCW 36.70A.070(6)), means that the city may only permit development approval if a development would not cause level of service to fall below the city’s adopted LOS standard of person trips available within concurrency service areas (CSA). For purposes of meeting the Growth Management Act requirements, in addition to city multimodal transportation facilities, the city will incorporate state highways of regional significance within the calculation of person trips available, but will not apply concurrency to highways of statewide significance consistent with RCW 47.06.140. The city will only include Whatcom County or other transportation arterials outside of the city’s jurisdiction in the calculation of person trips available according to an executed interlocal agreement with the controlling jurisdiction or agency.

“Concurrency application” means formal submittal of a concurrency application form to the public works department identifying the complete scope and information needed to calculate the associated person trip generation of a proposed development. The concurrency application is the applicant’s written request seeking review and approval of transportation concurrency from the city.

“Concurrency approval” means a determination by the public works department that adequate person trips are available and the operational level of service (LOS) will not fall below the adopted level of service (LOS) standard due to transportation impacts created by the proposed development.

“Concurrency evaluation” means the process, which may include a trip generation analysis by the applicant, to determine whether adequate person trips are available for a proposed development and whether a transportation impact analysis (TIA) will be required for the proposed development.

“Concurrency management system” means the procedures and processes used by the city public works department to determine that development permit approvals will meet the city’s transportation concurrency requirements.

“Concurrency measurement point” means a specific location on the multimodal transportation network used to measure vehicle traffic volume or transit service frequency (see Table 13.70.020).

“Concurrency mitigation” means transportation demand management strategies and/or multimodal transportation facility improvements constructed or financed by a developer which provide additional person trips for the facility which are needed to provide adequate person trips available to serve the development proposal. “Concurrency mitigation” applies to pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and arterial street facilities. Concurrency mitigation can be identified through the same process as off-site mitigation recommended in a traffic impact analysis (TIA).

“Concurrency service area” means a defined geographic area in which concurrency measurements points provide data used to calculate the number of person trips available to new development on the transportation network serving the area (see Figure 13.70.020).

“Development” means specified improvements or changes in use of land, designed or intended to permit a use of land which will contain more dwelling units or buildings than the existing use of the land, or to otherwise change the use of the land or buildings/improvements on the land in a manner that will increase the number of person trips generated by the existing use of the land, and that requires a development permit from the city. A phased development is any development involving multiple buildings where issuance of building permits could occur for individual buildings.

“Final certificate of concurrency” means the final certificate issued by the public works department confirming the availability and reservation of a specified amount of capacity on the committed transportation system specific to the approved permit for development. A final certificate of concurrency must be issued concurrently with development permit approval to account for any reduction in person trip reservation from temporary certificate of concurrency.

“Financial commitment” consists of the following:

“Growth Management Act (GMA)” means the Washington State Growth Management Act enacted in 1990 and approved amendments.

“Interlocal agreement” means an executed legal instrument structuring binding relationships between political entities as defined by Chapter 39.34 RCW.

“Level of service (LOS) standard” means the person trips available (PTA) within each concurrency service area (CSA) to serve new development as adopted in the transportation element of the comprehensive plan.

“Multi-use trails” include:

“Peak hour project trips” means the person trips estimated to be generated by a proposed development during the one-hour weekday afternoon period during which the greatest volume of users are on the multimodal transportation system. The peak hour project trips shall be estimated based on procedures identified in the city’s Development Guidelines and Improvement Standards Manual, Section 11, “Traffic Studies.” The peak hour project trips are used to determine the transportation concurrency evaluation fee, the requirement for a transportation impact analysis (TIA), and the estimated transportation impact fee for development.

“Peak hour vehicle traffic” means vehicle traffic volumes during the one-hour weekday afternoon period during which the greatest volume of vehicle traffic uses the arterial system, as identified separately at each appropriate concurrency measurement point.

“Person trips available (PTA)” means the ability of the committed transportation system to accommodate the transportation impacts of new development within a concurrency service area (CSA) and is expressed in terms of weekday p.m. peak hour person trips available. For purposes of the concurrency evaluation, the available person trips will be based on the total person trips calculated for each travel mode less the already used person trips for that mode. The sum of the available person trips for each mode will be the total available person trips for each concurrency evaluation area.

“SEPA” means the State Environmental Policy Act (Chapter 43.21 RCW) as implemented by the city of Bellingham.

“Six-year transportation improvement program” means the expenditures programmed by the city for capital purposes over the next six-year period in the six-year transportation improvement program pursuant to RCW 35.77.010. The financial plan underlying the adopted six-year transportation improvement program identifies all applicable and available revenue sources, and the plan forecasts these revenues through the six-year period with reasonable assurance that such funds will be timely put to such ends.

“Temporary certificate of concurrency” means the initial certificate issued by the public works department confirming the availability and reservation of a specified amount of capacity on the committed transportation system specific to the proposed development.

“Transit-oriented development (TOD)” means land use development that generally has the following characteristics:

“Transportation demand management (TDM) strategies” means techniques or programs that reduce single-occupant vehicle commute travel or improve the capacity of a transportation facility and that are approved by the public works department. TDM strategies may include but are not limited to vanpooling, carpooling, and public transit, access management, signalization, and channelization.

“Transportation impact analysis (TIA)” is the documentation of both on-site and off-site impacts, as well as recommended mitigating measures, to maintain public safety and adopted level of service (LOS) standards on the citywide multimodal transportation system. TIAs shall be performed by an engineer licensed in the state of Washington, according to procedures identified in the city’s Development Guidelines and Improvement Standards Manual, Section 11, “Traffic Studies.”

“Transportation mitigation” includes all nonconcurrency measures required by city development regulations, transportation impact analysis (TIA) mitigation recommendations, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requirements, and traffic impact fee (TIF) assessment to mitigate the nonconcurrency related transportation impacts from a proposed development.

“Travel demand forecast model” is the city’s computerized transportation model, which is used to develop and analyze peak hour travel demands on the city’s transportation facilities. This information is used as the basis for the transportation element of the Bellingham comprehensive plan and in other transportation planning and traffic engineering applications.