SPF Board Files an Appeal

The Board of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland filed an appeal with Skagit County related to their decision to approve development permits for a large agricultural processing facility to be built on five acres of prime farmland within the 100-year floodplain.Drainage and Irrigation District #17 independently filed their own appeal of the same proposed project.During the permit review of the proposed project, SPF identified a number of inconsistencies between the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), Skagit County’s Comprehensive Plan and its Development Regulations.  These inconsistencies have the inadvertent effect of potentially increasing the loss of farmland through public policy.In addition to our concerns about the long-term impacts of converting farmland to other uses, SPF also raised concerns about the proposed project’s impact to the floodplain, drainage, critical public infrastructure and to adjacent landowners.    These concerns did not get addressed by the County before the permits were issued.Our Board made the difficult decision to file a notice of appeal to address the site specific project related issues and wider public policy issues.  Inconsistencies between SEPA and county regulations and policies should be addressed now, before there are irreversible, long-term negative impacts to our remaining prime farmlands, the environment and critical public infrastructure.In addition to our ongoing work with Skagit County, we have also approached the project owners to start a conversation about what steps can be taken to avoid, minimize or mitigate the project’s impacts.  Our conversations also included discussions about potentially purchasing any development rights at the project site and/or possibly purchasing the subject property.SPF is actively working to seek and offer alternate win/win solutions for this particular project, and future projects like it.  While we appealed Skagit County’s decisions, by no means does this prevent us from continuing to meet with the project owners and Skagit County outside of the appeal process.We believe our appeal raises fundamental public policy questions about how to review and permit projects on our remaining farmland.  We hope our appeal fosters a useful, productive conversation with the County, the project owners, and our wider community about how we can all continue to preserve prime farmland, agricultural drainage infrastructure and the environment – and work to address regulations that affect farmland and the 100-year floodplain for the better.If you would like to discuss this process, we encourage you to call us or read more detailed background on the appeal here.