Island County commissioner reads decades-old racist deed covenants, proposes resolution of atonement

District 1 Commissioner St. Clair read aloud historic racially restrictive covenants Wednesday that the Bridals Restrictive Covenants Project identified in Island County plats and deeds and asked the county prosecuting attorney to help draft a resolution of atonement.

"These were plats approved by the Board of Island County Commissioners," St. Clair said, reading excerpts of deed language recorded between about 1930 and 1950 on Whidbey and Camano Islands. She read multiple examples that barred ownership or occupancy by anyone "not of the white race" and noted the restrictions sometimes appeared in plats, covenants or deeds of sale. "I am deeply ashamed," St. Clair said, and she told the board she would ask the prosecuting attorney to work with her "to draft a resolution of atonement for this shameful history."

St. Clair said the Bridals Restrictive Covenants Project identified more than 900 restricted properties across 22 subdivisions in Island County, and that most of the restrictions found on Whidbey and Camano Islands were shoreline properties in District 1. She read representative covenant language for named subdivisions, including Arrowood Beach, Pebble Beach, Baby Island Heights, Bayview Beach and others, and noted the covenants frequently included other development restrictions (for example, house size, septic systems and prohibitions on livestock) in the same instruments as the racial language.

St. Clair tied the covenants to long-term outcomes, saying the restrictions kept property in white ownership, which in turn produced generational property wealth that nonwhite families were denied. She asked whether her colleagues would support a formal county resolution acknowledging the county—s role in authorizing and recording those covenants.

Commissioner Johnson responded that he found the covenants "horrifying" but said he needed to consider whether "atoning for somebody else's sin" was an appropriate board action and wanted more time to think about it.

St. Clair also described the Covenants Homeownership Account Act that the Washington Legislature passed on April 23, 2023. She said the statute recognizes state and local government roles in authorizing racially restrictive covenants and establishes funding to compensate harmed families via mortgage assistance and interest-free down-payment loans administered by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission; St. Clair said the program is expected to provide about $100 million a year and that eligibility requires applicants to be first-time homebuyers at or below AMI thresholds and to be Washington residents prior to 1968 or descendants of residents who were. Those program parameters and the funding amount were stated by the commissioner during her remarks; the board did not take formal action to refer or endorse the state program at the meeting.

St. Clair said she would publish a personal statement of atonement for District 1 if the board declined to pursue a county resolution; she also invited the prosecuting attorney to work with her on drafting a county resolution. The transcript records no formal vote or referral at the March 4 meeting on the proposed county resolution.

Clarifying details: the Bridals Restrictive Covenants Project material St. Clair cited listed more than 900 restricted properties in 22 subdivisions (as described by St. Clair in the meeting). The covenants St. Clair read include explicit prohibitions barring ownership or occupancy by persons "not of the white race," and several named subdivisions were read into the record.