From Allen's Desk
Welcome to From Allen’s Desk - a look at what’s happening in the world of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland.
Water
SPF’s work on the Washington State Joint Legislative Taskforce on Water in the Skagit continued this past quarter: we partnered with the Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium (Consortium) and the Skagit Agricultural Water Advisory Group (SAWAG) to review and comment on the Skagit Water Supply and Demand synthesis, a detailed look at water in the Skagit Basin.
SPF and the Consortium hosted multiple stakeholder forums within the agricultural community and worked with the SAWAG to gather feedback and provide detailed comments on the study to the Washington Water Research Center and Taskforce members.
Read the comment letter signed by the Consortium and SPF here.
Agritourism
We continue to monitor and track Skagit County’s progress on their Agritourism work plan. After completing their discovery phase, which included focus group meetings, a community wide web-based survey, and individual meetings with stakeholders, county planning staff identified four possible paths to pursue, as presented to the Skagit County Board of County Commissioners on July 20:
Option A – Target specific changes to existing regulations and definitions to allow tourism activities that are currently prohibited in the Ag.-NRL-zoned areas, such as wedding venues and restaurants.
Option B – Define a core agricultural area and perimeter agricultural areas and prohibiting or limiting tourism activities in the core agricultural area.
Option C – Advancing the concept of Food Hubs inside existing cities and or Urban Growth Areas (UGAs).
See the presentation to the Skagit County Board of County Commissioners here.
Since the July presentation, we are not aware of additional clarity from Skagit County regarding what they mean by Food Hubs and/or core agricultural areas and perimeter agricultural areas. We have serious concerns about these undefined terms as they have the potential to rapidly undermine and weaken the protections for a large number of our existing farms and farmers.
As Skagit County staff and consultants begin to develop draft legislative options for agritourism in Skagit County, the SPF board believes the greatest emphasis of any new legislation must be on “Big A” (Agriculture) and the subordinate emphasis on “little t” (tourism). We believe agritourism in Skagit County must meet the following five characteristics:
Be tied to an existing on-site farming operation
Attract members of the public to visit a working farm operation
Is not a detriment to surrounding agricultural operations and/or practices
Is designed to supplement existing farm income
Provide recreation, entertainment, and/or educational experiences to visitors that promotes and enhances Skagit agriculture overall
Fully Contained Communities
In early May of this year, all three Skagit County commissioners voted to docket a proposal by Skagit Partners LLC to create a code path that would allow for massive subdivisions — Fully Contained Communities (FCCs) — to be built in Skagit County, despite well over 700 public comments asking them to not proceed with allowing FCCs in Skagit County.
And the allowance wouldn’t be for just one FCC: if the Commissioners approve what is on the Docket this year, it will pave the way for developers of these massive subdivisions to apply for a permit once every five years.
SPF’s Land Protection Advisory Council (LPAC) member Margery Hite wrote about why these massive subdivisions are not the answer for Skagit County’s housing issues.
Read Margery’s article here.
SPF is part of a growing grassroots coalition to keep FCCs out of Skagit County. We strive to find and use more appropriate tools, techniques, and policies to create housing options everyone can afford.
We aim to manage our growth so our cities are vibrant and livable, and our working lands (farm and forest) and rural areas remain economically viable for generations to come.
We need your support today. Make a donation to the campaign here.
Farmland Protection
We are excited to share that we are working with a land owner to help his family protect nearly 70 acres of prime farmland southwest of the Conway freeway interchange. The land was being scouted by developers a few years ago for a future Pilot Truck Stop, which was eventually built on prime farmland at the Island Crossing Freeway Interchange near Arlington.
Our work to date has been assisting the landowner with applications and paperwork to prepare for submission to the Skagit County’s Farmland Legacy Program, including lot certifications, which are a necessary requirement before enrolling in the Farmland Legacy Program.
When complete, this project — which is adjacent to 27 acres of permanently protected farmland by the Wylie family in 2010 — will form a combined 96 acres of protected farmland at a key freeway interchange, helping to keep our famous coming-home view protected and permanently in agriculture production for generations to come.
You can learn more about and support this project at our upcoming Online 23rd Harvest Auction event on September 18th.
Buy your tickets or reserve a table here today!
Youth InFARMation Self-Guided / Virtual Farm Tours
In May of this year we successfully launched our pilot self-guided / virtual farm tour for 4th and 5th grade students. The program delivers STEM learning kits to participating classrooms that are aligned with Washington State and federal math, science, and social studies learning standards.
Three schools participated in the pilot program; we plan to expand in future years. This effort, a result of the pandemic, will become an additional element of our successful in-person farm tours, allowing us to reach every 4th-grade classroom in Skagit County.
It’s not too late to participate. Go here to download the workbook, get a list of supplies for each workbook activity, and participate in the virtual tour today!
Thank you to our 2021 Youth InFARMation Self-Guided Farm Tour partners and tour stops: Shell Puget Sound Refinery, Northwest Farm Credit Services, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Osborne Quality Seeds, Harmony Fields, Hedlin’s Family Farm, Schuh Farms, Skagit Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium and Adele Barborinas.
Emerging Issue:
Seattle auto dealer buys 12 acres of farmland for car storage
The owner of a large auto dealership purchased 12 acres of Skagit farmland adjacent to the city of Burlington and the I-5 Auto World in order to expand their used car sales lot, Burlington Used Car Superstore.
The property is home to an approximately three acre abandoned seasonal farm workers housing site that is under an enforcement order to be cleaned up. The dealership and their legal counsel approached SPF to seek our approval to begin using six of the twelve acres for their used car sales lot in exchange for complying with the county’s clean-up order.
We have offered help find an agricultural buyer for property once the dealership satisfies the county’s enforcement action, with the goal of making the farmland available to farmers and keeping it in agricultural production. But just a few days ago, we learned that the dealership had submitted applications to Skagit County to allow them to use the property for their proposed non-agricultural uses.
Former SPF President Steve Sakuma calls this erosion of farmland “death by a thousand cuts.”
We are frustrated by this action and will ask the public later this year to help us oppose the now pending application to permanently convert one of our most precious resources for local food and fiber into a retail operation to sell more cars.
Thank your for your continued support!
We are grateful for the support of our SPF members and community as a whole as we work together to protect and preserve Skagit farmland and farming—and all that comes with it!
From all of us at SPF, we hope and trust you and your families are and remain safe.
With Gratitude,
