PRESS RELEASE

October 22, 2024

Contact

Tara Satushek

[email protected]

360-416-1320

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Skagit County Releases First Drafts of the Climate Element and Environment Element Preliminary Policy Revisions of the 2025 Comprehensive Plan

Skagit County has released the first drafts of the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Climate and Environment Preliminary Policies. These documents are now available for public review on our project page. The comment period is open from Tuesday, October 22, 2024, to November 22, 2024. To ensure the community and Planning Commission can provide robust input, the project schedule has a two-step policy review process. Preliminary draft policies for each comprehensive plan element will be prepared and presented to the Planning Commission for initial comments in phases between July and October 2024.

There will be a 30-day written comment period available for each draft element as they are released. The comments and feedback provided will be incorporated into the Draft Comprehensive Plan, which will be released for public review this winter. When the Draft Comprehensive Plan is complete, there will be additional opportunities to provide public comments during the public hearing phase. Two public hearings will be hosted, one by the Planning Commission and another by the Skagit Board of County Commissioners, between February 2025 and June 2025. More information about the schedule and opportunities to comment can be found on the project webpage.  

Climate Element Overview  

Amended in 2023 by House Bill 1181, the Growth Management Act now requires integrating climate change policies into comprehensive plan updates. To address state requirements, Skagit County is developing a Climate Element that includes both resilience and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions mitigation goals and policies, in line with the state requirements below. 

Resilience Requirements: 

1. Address natural hazards created or aggravated by climate change, including sea level rise, landslides, flooding, drought, heat, smoke, wildfire, and other effects of changes to temperature and precipitation patterns;
   
   
2. Identify, protect, and enhance natural areas to foster climate resilience, as well as areas of vital habitat for safe species migration; and
   
   
3. Identify, protect, and enhance community resilience to climate impacts, including social, economic, and built-environment factors, which support adaptation to climate impacts consistent with environmental justice. 

GHG Emissions Reduction Requirements: 

1. Result in reductions in overall GHG emissions generated by transportation and land use within the jurisdiction but without increasing emissions elsewhere in Washington;
   
   
2. Result in reductions in per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT) within the jurisdiction but without increasing greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere in Washington; and 
   
   
3. Prioritize reductions that benefit overburdened communities in order to maximize the co-benefits of reduced air pollution and environmental justice. 

Environment Element Amendments Overview

The review of the Environment Element policies focuses on a few overarching objectives:   

• New and revised goals and policies based on community input.
  
  
• Consistency with the Growth Management Act (GMA) and current law changes.

• Streamlining of policy language to make it easier to apply and moving procedural details, technical requirements, and specific regulations to Skagit County Code.
  
  
• Use of active verbs to enhance readability and understanding of how the goals and policies will be implemented.

Policies were revised to ensure consistency with applicable state and regional laws, provide clear direction, reduce redundancies, and improve feasibility and implementation. Environmental policies have also been revised to satisfy new climate, resiliency, and GHG requirements in state law.

If you would like to comment, please email [email protected] with “Skagit County’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan Draft Policies” in the subject line. Include your comments in the body of your email message rather than as attachments. If you prefer to send written comment, it must be printed on 8½ x 11 inch paper and mailed or delivered to:

Comments on Skagit County’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan Draft Policies
Planning and Development Services
1800 Continental Place
Mount Vernon WA 98273

For more information about how to comment, please visit the project webpage. For questions, please email Tara Satushek at [email protected] or Robby Eckroth at [email protected].

###