Skagit County Releases First Drafts of the Transportation Element, Capital Facilities Element, and Utilities Element Preliminary Policy Revisions
Skagit County has released the first drafts of the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Transportation, Capital Facilities, and Utilities Preliminary Policy Revisions. These documents are now available for public review on our project page. The comment period is open from Tuesday, September 24, 2024, to October 24, 2024. To ensure the community and Planning Commission can provide robust input, the project schedule has a two-step policy review process. Preliminary draft policy amendments for each comprehensive plan element will be prepared and brought 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 on the Draft Comprehensive Plan between February 2025 and June 2025. More information about the schedule and opportunities to comment can be found on the project webpage. The review of Transportation, Capital Facilities, and Utilities policies focuses on a few overarching objectives:
New 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.
Furthermore, the focus includes identifying outdated policies for potential removal and recommending the integration of community feedback. Your voice matters! If you would like to comment, please email pdscomments@co.skagit.wa.us 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 a written paper comment, it must be printed on 8½x11 paper and mailed or delivered to: Planning and Development Services Comments on “Skagit County’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan Draft Policies” 1800 Continental Place Mount Vernon WA 98273 For more information about how to comment please visit the project webpage. For additional information and questions please email Tara Satushek at taras@co.skagit.wa.us or Robby Eckroth at reckroth@co.skagit.wa.us.