A tie vote on the Ferndale City Council has stalled a sewer extension project that city officials have spent years positioning as key to unlocking growth north of downtown. The council split 3-3 on October 5 over a design contract for the Grandview sewer extension, a rejection that leaves a long-planned 2.5-mile pipeline project without a clear path forward for now.
The vote, first reported by Cascadia Daily News, came as council members weighed a $4 million contract to design the extension, which would run sewer service north into the Grandview area. Council members Ryan O'Larey, Jon Mutchler and Erin Gunter voted against the contract, while McKenna Pinto-Gonzalez, Herb Porter and Robert Pinkley voted in favor. Council member Ali Hawkinson was absent from the vote, and under city rules, the mayor cannot break a tie or veto a council no vote.
Mayor Greg Hansen told the outlet the Grandview sewer project remains critical to Ferndale's future and that he intends to keep pursuing it. He acknowledged he had not adequately explained his long-range vision for the project or anticipated how the timing of the vote would affect the outcome, and he called bringing the contract forward during the city's budget deliberations bad timing on his part, per the same account.
Why the Sewer Line Matters to Grandview's Future
Ferndale's sewer system does not currently serve much of north Ferndale, including areas within city limits, which has kept development in that area limited to low-density single-family homes on septic systems and low-intensity commercial uses. City records show Ferndale annexed the Grandview area roughly in 2010, and the City of Ferndale states plainly that the lack of sewer service has limited the development potential in the area ever since.
The city, working with Wilson Engineering, has already prepared a preliminary design calling for a series of pump stations and gravity lines to complete the 2.5-mile alignment, according to the city's own project page. The Grandview sewer extension is expected to encourage economic development near Interstate 5, and the Whatcom County comprehensive plan projects 11,000 additional residents and 3,500 additional jobs in and around Ferndale through 2045, per Cascadia Daily News. The project could also unlock nearly 1,000 acres around Aldergrove and Malloy for housing, the outlet reported, and Grandview is described as one of the last undeveloped urban interchanges on Washington's I-5 corridor, sitting near the Canadian border, the BNSF railway, Bellingham's deep-water shipping terminal and nearby population centers.
Money Already Set Aside, More Sought From Washington, D.C.
Ferndale has budgeted toward this project for years. The 2026 city budget included $2 million for the Grandview sewer extension earmarked for design, according to the Lynden Tribune, after a prior $2.5 million allocation in the 2025 budget went unused due to staff capacity. Hansen has said the design work could also help the city gather additional state and federal funding sources.
Federal money is already in play. The city has been designated $4 million in federal funding for the Grandview sewer extension as of January, though the Tribune's report notes much of that funding is intended for an early step in the process, such as planning or design, with additional federal dollars potentially following for construction. Per Hansen, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen had preliminarily promised $4 million in Army Corps of Engineers funding toward the project, according to Cascadia Daily News. Sewer bill payments and connection fees have also been earmarked for the extension for several years, and owners and developers who eventually connect to the completed line would pay some project costs through latecomers' fees. The city is also obligated by state law to provide sewer services within its boundaries and is responsible for equitably distributing capital costs among its sewer customers.
Council Members Cite Budget Strain and Timing
Opposition on the council centered on the city's broader financial picture rather than the sewer project's merits in isolation. Ferndale faces a tight budget as revenue fails to keep pace with expenditures and is on course to draw on reserves unless it increases revenue or makes significant cuts, though the sewer fund itself is not in crisis — it is the general fund that is facing financial strain, per Cascadia Daily News.
Pinto-Gonzalez said moving from a discussion of two additional police officers costing $400,000 to a $4 million sewer design contract within the same meeting felt abrupt. O'Larey, who opposed both the sewer extension and broader city spending and tax increases, called it the biggest dud he had seen during his time on council and argued the city should stop the project early rather than spend money to create jobs. Hansen, for his part, warned that building the project on ratepayers' backs could cost him and council members their offices.
What Regional Data Says About the Stakes
The push for Grandview sewer service fits into a wider regional conversation about industrial land scarcity. The Port of Bellingham, which the project frames as Whatcom County's primary economic development agency, has said the county faces a major shortage of developable land ready for industrial and commercial uses. A Port of Bellingham industrial lands study found that while the county has an adequate supply of industrially zoned land, several barriers — including utility access, parcel size and transportation connections — limit how much of it is actually usable.
That study, which considers industry trends, land availability, infrastructure readiness and projected employment growth through 2045, found more than 15,000 acres in the county are industrially zoned but only about 3,400 acres are considered developable, as reported by The Bellingham Herald. After accounting for constraints and excluding properties smaller than one acre, the study found just over 2,400 acres have real potential for future industrial employment — underscoring the study's conclusion that land quality and readiness, not raw quantity, present the bigger obstacle. A 2025 study commissioned by Ferndale and the Port of Bellingham found that north Ferndale has significant potential as an economic center if it were connected to city services, according to Cascadia Daily News, and the project has been examined in two feasibility studies and two utility rate analyses to date.
What Comes Next
Hansen does not view the council's vote as a permanent rejection of the project. He has said different entities have expressed interest in helping fund the Grandview sewer project, and he has indicated he plans to build a council coalition to repackage the project and seek design-phase funding with the help of federal lobbyists, according to Cascadia Daily News. Ferndale had planned to seek external construction funding once the design phase was complete, with construction itself expected to cost at least $25 million.
