Essential Housing for Essential Workers Key to Skagit’s Rural Future

Skagit County is at a crossroads. For years, we have been protected by our geography from surrounding pressures to convert agricultural, forest, and river resources to urban uses. However, in just the last few years Skagit County has experienced several existential threats and we can expect more as climate changes make the Pacific Northwest both more attractive and more vulnerable.

Skagit Citizens Press for Accountability, Transparency in Planning Commissioner Appointments

A series of puzzling, and at times controversial, decisions and actions by the Skagit County Planning Commission led to a push for more transparency from County Commissioners regarding the process of Planning Commissioner appointments. A group of Skagit citizens from Home Rule Skagit, as well as local Good Government advocates, are behind that push. There have been small successes in this process, but more needs to be done. At a time when issues of growth are so crucial, the Planning Commission often seems to be in the driver’s seat of the county’s future.

Anatomy of a Zombie Permit: the proposed Grip Road Gravel Mine, six years and counting

For six years a group of citizens called Central Samish Valley Neighbors (CSVN) has been working to protect their rural community from the impacts of a large new gravel mine. The permit review process, led by Skagit County Planning and Development Services, has been long, drawn out, and fraught with problems from the outset.