We have proudly owned our business in the Skagit Valley for 33 years and in that time we have preserved multiple historic Skagit Valley buildings, hosted garden clubs, enjoyed Farm Bureau meetings, art shows, and celebrations. It is our strong recommendation that the County Commissioners reject the current proposed code from the Agricultural Advisory Board and that we get this right, for the sake of business and community.
A note from Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland:
“We are disappointed with the recent (December 12, 2023) decision to keep advancing the current agritourism code proposal without incorporating community input, as it preserves the status quo – which we know isn’t working for anyone. It does not work for the farm community, it does not work for the agritourism community and it does not work for Skagit County.
The proposed amendments as currently drafted, we believe, will have the unintended consequence of further restricting current legal uses authorized under existing code and create ambiguity with regard to a person’s legal use of their existing farm operation(s). The current proposal also does not address the County’s current capacity to implement or enforce.
SPF will continue to advocate for additional time to allow greater community dialogue between the stakeholders in order for the community to come together to find a win/win outcome that is also actionable by Skagit County. There are real concerns and issues that need to be worked through.
The SPF-sponsored agritourism multi-stakeholder work group, which was made up of agricultural groups, individual farms, agritourism businesses, and agencies, along with interested community members, spent dozens of hours early this year working through a number of the complex issues. The multi-stakeholder group submitted recommendations to Skagit County as part of the public comment period, along with over a thousand other public comments
Nearly all the public comments (98%) submitted or presented in person to Skagit County were in opposition to the current proposal.”
Read more on the Skagitonians Website https://www.skagitonians.org/agritourism
Read our Proposal Agritourism Amendments to Skagit County by Stakeholders