Anacortes planners preview climate element: 2022 inventory, vulnerability index and next steps

Anacortes planning staff and consultants on March 26 presented background analyses for the city's comprehensive-plan climate element, including a 2022 greenhouse gas inventory and a climate vulnerability index, and told commissioners the working draft of goals and policies will be released to the commission before the next meeting.

The presentation matters because Washington state's HB 1181 requires jurisdictions to include separate greenhouse-gas reduction and resilience subelements in their comprehensive plans; the city's analysis will inform local policies on transportation, building energy, shoreline risk and community equity. John Coleman, director of the Planning, Community and Economic Development Department, told the commission the meeting would cover "why we are required to do a climate element" and provide background that will feed the goals-and-policies stage scheduled for the commission's next meeting.

Consultants from Makers and Parametrics summarized the technical work the city has used to prepare the element. Katie Saunders of Makers explained the two required subelements and Commerce guidance the team followed, saying: "there's a new state requirement to plan for climate change as part of the comprehensive planning process." Beth Miller of Parametrics presented the greenhouse gas inventory and summarized methodology and findings. Miller reported the inventory result as "486,000 metric tons c o 2 e in 2022," and described why consultants used 2022 as the baseline: some utility and sector data lag, making recent complete year data the practical choice for a reproducible baseline.

Resident speakers during public comment raised process and technical questions. Shihua Mu, a resident of Anacortes, questioned the choice of baseline year and asked, "Shouldn't we select a non COVID years as baseline?" Mu also asked for supporting data and slide decks to be made available at least 10 days before public open houses. Marlene Finley, representing Evergreen Islands and a member of the climate policy team, praised staff and the consultants and urged commissioners to "take a deeper dive to understand the data and the rationale that's going into the recommendations." Mark Robinson, a local permit services owner, used public comment to press staff on whether the city is preparing to meet new statutory permit timeframes introduced by the state.

On technical points, the consultants explained the inventory totals and how they are grouped for planning purposes. Miller described the inventory approach as a full community accounting of emissions and removals and explained the distinction between locally generated emissions (commonly called scope 1 and 2) and imported or consumption-based emissions (scope 3). She told the commission that locally generated emissions in Anacortes are driven primarily by building energy and transportation and that imported emissions (goods, food and upstream fuel production) roughly match local emissions in scale. When asked whether 2022 remained a COVID-affected outlier, Miller said the team had compared time series in other jurisdictions and "we haven't seen that 2022 is any reason that we need to really be correcting."

The vulnerability work was presented as a three-part index combining exposure (physical hazard projections), sensitivity (demographic and health indicators) and adaptive capacity (socioeconomic resources). Parametrics and Makers said the index highlights several priority risks for the city: extreme heat, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, changes in precipitation (flooding and drought), and wildfire and wildfire smoke. Consultants noted specific local assets at risk including SR 20 (a critical access route), portions of the shoreline near downtown, the wastewater treatment facility and the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. The consultants emphasized the maps are tools for planning, not prescriptive zoning changes; the climate team and consultants adjusted the index with local input to better reflect community conditions.

Commissioners asked about data sources, reproducibility and next steps. Coleman said staff had received a working draft of goals and policies from the consultants the day of the meeting and expected to distribute the draft to commissioners ahead of the next meeting; he confirmed the commission will see goals and policies at the next planning commission meeting and that a public hearing would follow. Katie Saunders said Commerce interim guidance and state definitions (including an environmental justice definition drawn from the Washington State Environmental Justice Task Force) guided the analysis.

The presentation prompted requests for clarity and additional review time from commissioners and members of the climate team. Commissioners and consultants agreed to release the working draft to the commission before the next meeting; staff said they would coordinate timing so commissioners have adequate time to review prior to the meeting where goals and policies are discussed. The consultants also noted the city's climate explorer tool and open-house materials remain available online for public review.

Looking ahead, the consultants and staff said the next planning commission meeting will present the draft goals and policies and then the commission will hold a public hearing at a subsequent meeting. The consultants stated that the state's Clean Energy Transformation Act, regional utility changes and other state actions will contribute substantially to future emissions reductions, and the local choices to emphasize will be reducing vehicle miles traveled, switching building heating from fossil fuels to electric heat pumps and increasing local renewable energy and resilience measures.

Quotes in this article are taken from the March 26, 2025 Anacortes Planning Commission meeting and reflect speakers recorded in the meeting transcript.