Bellingham,
Washington.
AXE's home office — serving Whatcom and Skagit Counties with civil engineering, stormwater design, land use services, and drafting since 2017.
851 Coho Way, Suite #306
Bellingham, WA 98225
Mon–Fri, 8:00am – 4:30pm
Whatcom County's stormwater regulations are some of the most challenging in Washington — especially in the Lake Whatcom watershed and across Bellingham's infill development. Our team has spent a decade designing and permitting projects through those exact rules.
We work across the full range of commercial, industrial, multi-family, residential subdivision, and single-family residence projects — and we know the reviewers at the jurisdictions that matter.
Two counters, two vocabularies. Inside city limits a project answers to City of Bellingham planning and public works together, and the short-subdivision process reaches up to nine lots. Step outside into unincorporated Whatcom County and the same split becomes a long subdivision at five lots, with a public hearing attached. Knowing which side of that line a parcel sits on changes the schedule, the drawing set, and sometimes whether the deal works at all.
What we design here.
Core service
Civil & Stormwater
Site plans, grading, utilities, and drainage design for classic civil engineering projects including commercial & multifamily developments, short plats & large subdivisions.
Fixed-fee · Approval guaranteed
Residential Stormwater
Standalone Stormwater Drainage Design for single-family building permits or land disturbance permits.
End-to-end
Land Use & PM
Design, plan, and manage your project from conceptual planning through final construction — backed by deep working relationships with local, state, and federal jurisdictions.
Access & trip review
Traffic Engineering
Traffic impact analysis, trip generation, access review, and turn-lane warrant support for Whatcom, Skagit, and Snohomish land-development approvals.
Civil plan production
Drafting & Design
High-quality drafting, site exhibits, and preliminary evaluations to help you visualize and price a project before you commit.
Before you buy
Site Feasibility
A written civil feasibility memo in five business days — stormwater outlook, critical-areas flag, and jurisdictional path — for a flat $500.
What we work on here.
Short plats and subdivisions
Dividing a parcel is a civil problem before it is a paperwork problem. Access, utilities, grading, and drainage decide whether the new lots are actually buildable, and they decide how fast the submittal moves.
Commercial and mixed-use
Site plans, grading, utilities, and stormwater for commercial and mixed-use development, coordinated as one package so the civil sheets and the land-use path do not contradict each other.
Multifamily and infill
Tighter sites, less room for the drainage, and existing utilities that were never sized for the new density. Middle-housing and infill projects live or die on early feasibility work.
Single-family and residential drainage
The fixed-fee residential drainage program covers the plan a building or land disturbance permit asks for, with jurisdictional revisions included until it is approved.
Local relationships matter.
Bellingham
Lynden
Ferndale
Blaine
Everson
Whatcom County
Mount Vernon
Skagit County
Schedule a call today.
Whether you're planning a subdivision, a single-family home, a commercial site, or just trying to figure out what's feasible — we're happy to talk it through.