Anacortes planning commission holds public hearing on climate-plan updates as residents warn against battery storage and refinery impacts

April 23 — The Anacortes Planning Commission held a public hearing April 23 on proposed amendments to the 2025 Comprehensive Plan’s climate, environment and conservation elements, hearing staff and consultant presentations and several public comments focused on battery energy storage systems and March Point refinery impacts.

Planning staff Libby Graig opened the hearing and summarized the process to date; Katie Saunders, a planner with MAKERS Architecture and Urban Design, reviewed text changes proposed to the climate element, including wording edits to several goal and policy statements and clarification of coordination with utilities. Saunders read a revised policy text that would increase outreach on wildfire risks: "Increased community awareness of local wildfire hazards and collaborate with property owners in high risk areas when developing a community wildfire prevention plan and coordinate on the need to protect structures adjacent to forested areas from wildfire danger as required by state wildfire, wildland urban interface regulations with public open space regulations." Saunders told the commission the edits mostly reduced repetition and clarified language rather than introducing substantive new requirements.

Members of the public used the hearing to urge the commission to reconsider proposed language that mentions storage or battery storage. Suzanne Roner of Anacortes opposed adding the word "storage" to CE-6 and inserting "battery storage" in CE-8, calling the change "a Trojan horse." Roner cited federal incentives and described what she characterized as safety and environmental risks associated with utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), including thermal-runaway fires and limited duration of most systems. "Please don't do it," she said of adding battery-storage references.

Mark Neihart, a longtime Anacortes resident, urged the commission to address water resilience and infrastructure hardening in the plan, citing recent flooding near the Skagit River and the treatment plant. Neihart also said the refineries use a large share of local water supplies, asserting "50 percent of Anacortes water goes to the refineries," and asked the city to pursue recycling or reuse with refinery operators.

Bud Anderson, who said he worked at the Shell refinery for 44 years, thanked the city and state for addressing climate and called attention to refinery emissions. Anderson cited two external reports — a Skagit County greenhouse-gas analysis and a Western Washington University study on Washington refineries — and urged the commission to include refinery emissions data in the plan. He recommended reforestation on undeveloped parts of March Point as a potential mitigation step.

Andrea Dahl also flagged March Point as a major local source of industrial emissions and urged the city and county to examine industrial growth impacts in the plan.

After public comment, Chair Martin and staff said the commission will review all submitted letters and hearing comments, including materials submitted after the packet. Commissioners signaled they wanted more time to review public input and asked staff to continue the climate-element discussion at the commission—s May 14 meeting, with additional public hearings on other plan elements planned for late May and a target public release of an integrated draft in June. Staff noted remaining work this summer on the housing action plan, code amendments, and critical areas regulations.

Votes at a glance: two procedural actions during the April 23 meeting were approved. A motion to excuse Commissioners Ryan and Mills passed; the commission recorded the motion and voice vote and the commissioners were excused. A motion to approve the minutes of Nov. 6, 2024 passed by voice vote and the minutes were approved. Specific mover/second names and roll-call tallies were not provided on the record for these procedural motions.

Ending — The commission closed the hearing after hearing public testimony and will reconvene the climate-element discussion at its next meeting; staff will post and circulate additional written comments submitted after the packet.