Years-long discussion on Skagit hot-button topic continues, with recommendation now scheduled for December.

[Source: https://salish-current.org/…/planning-board-postpones-agritourism-recommendation/]

The Skagit County Planning Commission is taking some extra time to deliberate over the proposed agritourism code amendments that have sparked debate in the local farming community before making a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners next month.

The planning commission was expected to make a recommendation Tuesday night but decided to reschedule to Dec. 16, while county commissioners will discuss the recommendations at a work session on Dec. 23 before making a decision at an unspecified date.

Agritourism has been a hot-button topic among Skagitonians for some time. Since 2021, the county has been studying the impacts of agritourism and whether the county code has been regulating it efficiently, with a lengthy back-and-forth process involving commissioners, county staff and stakeholder groups to find a satisfying balance between preserving farmland and helping small farmers make ends meet.

“Many communities across the country are working through this topic,” Lora Claus, executive director of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, wrote in an email to the Salish Current. “The common thread is there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.”

In the neighboring Whatcom and San Juan counties, however, there hasn’t been as much buzz about it.

Skagit County: What’s been put forward

The amendments propose a clearer definition of agritourism, which would be defined as “a range of activities conducted on a working farm or ranch that engages the public for the purpose of agricultural education, enjoyment or recreation that may generate income for the owner or operator,” according to the draft proposal.

In the amendments, agritourism activities must be secondary and related to the existing agricultural use of a property, and they must support the preservation of working farmland, improve farm viability, leave nearby agricultural activities undisturbed, help farmers diversify their income and increase the public’s awareness and appreciation of agriculture.

The agritourism code would not regulate u-picks and farm stands, which are already defined and allowed by the county code.

Agritourism would be allowed in only four out of 20 zone designations: Agricultural-Natural Resource Lands, Rural Resource-Natural Resource Lands, Rural Reserve, and Rural Intermediate. According to the comprehensive plan adopted this year, these lands occupy a total of 193,197 acres, or 17.3% of Skagit County’s entire acreage.

During a planning commission meeting on Sept. 16, Planning and Development Services Director Jack Moore said the proposal doesn’t provide specific examples of what activities are allowed and prohibited as they may vary.

However, limited event venues — which allow up to a certain number of events per year — such as restaurants and regularly occurring celebrations like weddings would be barred from the Agricultural-Natural Resource Lands zone, while single “outdoor musical, entertainment, amusement and assembly” events would continue to be permitted in all zones countywide.

Those who currently operate an agritourism activity could either enter into a voluntary compliance agreement or go through the permitting process for one of three proposed categories that set limits on the maximum number of people and days allowed for the activity and require different permits.

Agritourism 1 would include permitted uses limited to 50 guests for a maximum of 10 days allowed per year. Agritourism 2 activities would require an administrative special use permit, allowing up to 100 guests for a total of 24 days per year.

Guest and day limitations for Agritourism 3 would be set by a hearing examiner special use permit process in a more costly and lengthy process. Limits could depend on the number of agritourism activities proposed and the size and location of the property, in consideration of potential impacts to roads and neighboring properties. Farm-to-table activities would not be allowed to prevent them from operating as restaurants, as stated in the memo.

Those who applied for either Agritourism 2 or 3 permits must prove that the primary agricultural operation generated a gross income of at least $500 per acre yearly over the previous three years. According to Moore, this a “low-to-middle” standard that would demonstrate the operator has been part of the agricultural community for some time.

Farm businesses that are officially registered with the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival are allowed an additional 30 consecutive days of agritourism activities from March 15 to May 15. Claus wrote in her email that this could favor farms producing certain crops and livestock by granting them more agritourism days than farms with different agricultural products.

Clarity sought in San Juan

Faith Van De Putte, the coordinator of San Juan County’s Agricultural Resources Committee, said the committee is planning to have some conversations with the farming community this coming year to gather feedback and assess whether more policy changes are necessary.

“Skagit County is ahead of San Juan County as far as this whole conversation (goes),” she said.

Van De Putte runs Midnight’s Farm, a property on Lopez Island that produces berries, mixed vegetables and beef, and includes a compost operation and a farm stand that operates under a conditional use permit and is accessory to the farm, which makes most of its revenue from the food and compost.

Van De Putte said there needs to be clarity on what activities constitute agritourism. The line gets blurred when there is a facility for events that looks “farmey,” she said, but is actually not connected to the production of agricultural products.

“If the emphasis of the operation is no longer about producing agricultural product, is it still a farm? Because agritourism, by definition, is connected to a farm. If you have something that is not producing agricultural products (and) it’s producing weddings or producing some kind of other event … is that still agritourism?”

As part of its comprehensive plan update in 2022, San Juan County approved a few policy changes relating to agritourism for the sake of clarity, as agritourism was only “loosely defined” in the code, causing some confusion.

The first recommendation clarified that “agricultural accessory uses such as farm stands, direct sales of agricultural products, agritourism and farm-based businesses” shall be allowed on “all land use designations where agriculture is allowed” rather than just “where agriculture is allowed.”

The second change, suggested by the committee, included “farm stay accommodations” in a goal to set development standards that would allow for “agricultural accessory uses, farmstands, agritourism and farm-based businesses” while “preventing the conversion of agricultural resource land to permanent incompatible uses.”

The third proposal, also put forward by the committee, was to “establish development standards that allow for farm stay accommodations as an accessory enterprise on commercial farms,” instead of establishing standards that allow for accommodations for “agritourism enterprises.”

Lack of specifics in Whatcom

“Whatcom County does not have nearly the amount of discourse around agritourism that Skagit County does,” said Riley Sweeney, policy and communications specialist for the Whatcom County Executive’s Office. “In Skagit it is a hot topic and in Whatcom County it really isn’t.”

Sweeney said the county adopted in April some changes to the code for the sake of clarity and consistency, as the lack of specific agritourism language made it hard to regulate such activities up until that point.

Weddings and other special events were being allowed through the conditional use permit process as a “cottage industry” or as part of a bed-and-breakfast operation, even though they were not specifically listed as permitted uses in the code, leaving many unaware that there is a way to get approval to host those events.

According to the revised code, agritourism in Whatcom County is defined as “any activities carried out on a farm or ranch whose primary business activity is agriculture or ranching and that allows members of the general public, for recreational, entertainment, or educational purposes, to view or enjoy rural activities including, but not limited to: self-harvest activities for consumers, farming; ranching; historic, cultural, and on-site educational programs; recreational farming programs; guided and self-guided tours; petting zoos; corn mazes; harvest-your-own operations; hayrides; and horseback riding.”

The agricultural district allows agritourism activities, including but not limited to farm festivals, barn parties and camping.

Properties commercially used for hosting social events such as wedding receptions, seminars, private parties or similar activities are considered Type IV home-based businesses.

These properties have to be no smaller than 10 acres, be limited to 36 events per year with up to 300 guests per day, take place between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. and follow other rules pertaining to music, parking and traffic, according to the code.

Jessica Gillis, food and farming program manager at Sustainable Connections, did not comment on the proposed amendments in Skagit County, but said agritourism looks a little different in Whatcom, which doesn’t have agritourism events of the magnitude of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Concerning the risk of certain agritourism activities transforming farmland forever, she said properties used for events can be a holding space for viable farmland in the future. Though the best use might be farming, she believes event venues are a better alternative than homes, condos and asphalt that can’t be undone as easily while the country is losing farmland and young farmers at a fast rate.

“I think it’s really important to include agrotourism in a well-rounded farming community because we’re hoping to both inspire young folks to be farmers in the future, so in order to do that they need to see what farms look like and get out on them a bit,” she said.

Difficult balance, delicate financial landscape

“It’s a challenging task to create code that supports and protects working agriculture without becoming overly restrictive,” Claus wrote in an email to the Salish Current, acknowledging the entrepreneurial and adaptive nature of Skagit farmers.

Clarifying that agritourism is tied to a working farm is “crucial,” she said, adding that agritourism is separate from “tourist activities that are simply hosted in rural places.”

Claus worries certain activities would cause Skagit’s Agricultural-Natural Resource Lands — less than 10% of all the land in the county — to be lost forever.

“Our farmland is vulnerable to residential and commercial development, battery storage and solar farms … the list goes on and on,” she wrote. “Our world-class soils are a precious resource … Once it’s paved over, we don’t get it back.”

Echoing commissioner Angela Day’s Sept. 16 question of what would happen if a farmer advertises an event and more people than allowed showed up, Claus asked at a public hearing on Oct. 14 if the county would be willing to consider alternatives to measure and manage impacts, such as the amount of space a farm uses for agritourism activities rather than just the number of attendees. She also suggested keeping agritourism activities within the already developed portion of the farm while following common sense standards for light, noise and traffic.

Ideally, she wrote in the email, the updates would reduce conflicts between agricultural and non-agricultural activities while helping ensure that agritourism strengthens farming in Skagit County.

Kristen Keltz, CEO of Skagit Tourism Bureau, recommended clarifying the definition of agritourism operator to include farmers and land leaseholders to ensure equity across operations.

For the three-tier list, she suggested applying thresholds based on the type of agritourism activity and its impact rather than on arbitrary guest counts, and to focus on performance standards like parking, traffic and farmland preservation rather than not allowing some events altogether.

Community members also took the podium on Oct. 14 to share how the changes would affect their business.

Terry Sapp, a rancher from Sedro-Woolley, challenged the idea that “doing something else other than farming is a good idea on our farmland,” he said, adding that the Growth Management Act — which controls lands zoned for agriculture in Skagit County — is protecting the county from losing viable farmland.

Others shared how thinking outside the box has meant survival and supporting the local economy.

For people like Kate and Ann Habenicht, who own A&K Alder Farm in Sedro-Woolley, turning their 18-acre property into a campsite and small venue for weddings and community gatherings allowed their family to keep the property. On top of that, their guests shop and dine at local businesses.

While they agree that clear guidelines need to be established for agritourism, the Habenichts wrote in a statement that the proposed amendments would make it “nearly impossible” for families like theirs to succeed. Requiring that the income from agritourism be smaller than the income from farming would, they wrote, exclude their property completely as they have never made significant income from farming.

Planning and Development Services also received 396 letters from supporters of Willowbrook Manor, an English tea house and farm stay in Sedro-Woolley, and the home and working farm of Terry Gifford.

Gifford told the Salish Current that she understands the need to preserve farmland but worries her family farm — where she grows chamomile and hosts seasonal tea events, overnight stays and bike tours — would have to close due to the costs associated with the voluntary compliance agreement and required changes. She is currently waiting to hear back from the county after submitting a proposal for a more affordable solution that could help her become code compliant while continuing to connect people to a farm-based experience.

Nick Cecotti, owner of Vanderveen Farm in Mount Vernon, said trying to make money and dealing with new rules has been a daily struggle. The property used to be a dairy farm and was used to raise cows until the 1990s, and after over 20 years of being unused, it was transformed into a wedding venue.

Larry Jensen, a resident of Mount Vernon, said the county is trying to protect commercial agriculture when agriculture is a dying industry.

Andrew Miller, founder of Tulip Valley Farms, said the amendments impose arbitrary guest caps regardless of the size of the farm.

“My 30-acre operation faces the same restrictions that a three-acre operation would face. There’s no rational basis for this,” he said.

Vanessa Harrington, Tulip Valley Farm’s marketing and program director, said the future of Skagit Valley’s economy is agritourism and nature, which draw a growing number of people who are moving to the cities and want to experience family farms. She worries small farms would go out of business and be bought out by large farms while tourist dollars go to Whatcom and other neighboring counties.

By Luisa Loi