Yellow Pages
Skagit County’s long-range planning has been severely curtailed after two budget cuts in six months.
The county’s “team” of planners who handle policy changes rather than individual projects has been reduced from three to one over the last month. The fund used to hire outside experts to assist that team has been cut by 64 percent since late last year as county commissioners have reduced costs to meet declining revenues during the recession.
The commissioners had initially directed the planning department to set limits on master planned resorts, to make sure these areas for short-term recreational tourism don’t grow too big or spring up in parts of the county where officials don’t want them. The commissioners also wanted to see the long-term planning for Guemes Island wrapped up this year, after six years of work.
Both projects are likely to be shelved indefinitely due to a lack of staffing or funding.
Joost Businger, president of the Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee, said the delay concerns him because the plan is needed to protect the island from development.
“If the county is more sensitive to the environment, (the delay) may not be as serious, but it’s hard to say,” Businger said.
A three-year effort to create open spaces and trails in and around the county’s urban growth areas could be suspended in the next week. The Planning Commission will decide on June 16 whether wholesale changes or minor revisions to the plan are needed. The plan has been criticized by property owners who fear that preliminary open space and trail maps encourage trespassing on their land.
If the planning commissioners decide the open-space plan needs major changes, the project will come to a halt, Planning Director Gary Christensen said.
“I don’t have staff who can necessarily see this through to the bitter end,” he said.
Jeroldine Hallberg, the county planner who took the lead on the open-space plan, was laid off last month. But Hallberg and the county’s consultant want to see the project through and will attend the planning commission meeting next week without being paid, Christensen said.
Two long-range projects will move forward, Christensen said.
The planning commission will reconsider a possible re-zone of 1,120 acres of industrial forest owned by the Janicki family under the name Sanfi Acres. The Janickis want a zoning change that would allow as many as 56 homes on what is now a tree farm. The request was initially rejected, but the Janickis appealed.
The planning commission will take comment June 30 on a proposal that would allow timber land to remain under state forest regulations even if the land is subdivided. A state law that went into effect at the beginning of the year would place the entire subdivision, including the land set aside for forestry, under stricter county critical-area rules.
Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .
