Editor’s note: New photographs have been added to this story as of Sept. 24. 

BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Downtown Bellingham will be seeing more changes in the coming days as they address a source of traffic headaches.

Mayor Kim Lund announced on Monday during a council meeting that some restaurants will need to remove or scale back their outdoor dining by the beginning of next month.

Since the construction of the protected bike lane in May removed a lane on Holly Street, a traffic bottleneck has developed at the area of the Holly and Bay Street intersection.

Photo by Sam Kristofferson

“The combination of street eateries and the bike lane created a pinch point at Holly and Bay,” Lund said. “I think we’ve all heard a bit about that. To ease the pinch point, we’ve asked the businesses by Oct. 1 to either phase out their streatery structures or apply to scale them back.”

Restaurants in downtown constructed “streateries” during the COVID-19 pandemic to offer seating that would allow for social distancing.

It came after a 2019 rule allowed for a limited number of streateries and parklets in Bellingham and the city removed the cap on how many streateries could be built once the pandemic hit.

Already, Old Town Cafe’s outdoor dining has been removed.