Skagit County planning commission hears public concerns on proposed 2025 critical areas ordinance update

The Skagit County Planning Commission held a public hearing May 6 on the proposed 2025 Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) and development regulations update, hearing testimony from residents, conservation organizations and staff about stormwater pollution, riparian buffers, wetlands exemptions and where future growth should occur.

Speakers at the hearing urged the commission to tighten protections for fish and water quality, to require off‑site impact analyses for projects that could affect downstream critical areas, and to direct new housing toward existing urban areas rather than expanding rural villages.

Jan Edelstein, a Big Lake resident, told the commission she has compiled 25 years of local water‑quality data and cited a county chart showing that total phosphorus measured at the lake outlet has risen from below the 20 µg/L standard in 1999 to “50 to 60 µg per liter in phosphorus.” "It's up 300%," she said, and argued county rules that examine impacts only on site or within a fixed short buffer fail to account for pollutant loading that reaches downstream waters. Edelstein said a long‑running development project with about 18 acres of new…