Growing agrotourism in Skagit County requires planning and nurturing

Drive the roads surrounding La Conner, and you’ll see, depending on the season, everything from brussels sprouts and fava beans to berries, wheat and barley.

You’ll also find half a dozen farm stands and farm stores, at least two wedding venues, and four of the county’s largest “seasonal events:” Tulip Town and Roozengaarde in the spring, the Gordon Skagit and Schuh Farm Stands, U-Pick and traditional autumn activities in the fall.

Whether and how to define and develop rules for these “agritourism” activities is something that Skagit County is exploring, with input from many voices.

One goal is to clarify what exactly constitutes agritourism – and what it means to the County’s agricultural community and rural residents.

A recently released position paper from Skagit County says agritourism is generally considered “a commercial enterprise at a working farm, ranch, or agricultural plant conducted for the enjoyment of visitors that generates supplemental income for the owner.”

Selling directly to customers is one such enterprise. For Dave Hedlin, it’s also an enduring agricultural tradition.

“If you go back 100 years in La Conner, that’s how it worked,” he said. “Somebody had a milk cow and somebody else had strawberries.”

Farm stands, U-pick, bed and breakfasts and temporary events are permitted under Skagit County zoning code, but regulations are vague and enforcement can be challenging. Other activities like tasting rooms and restaurants, whose buildings and parking lots can pave over ag land, are not currently permitted.

Would they be a good fit for Skagit County? That’s the million-dollar question.

Released March 7, the County’s paper “Policy Concepts: Agritourism Intent, Scale and Use Operations” addresses what types of agritourism will be a focus of potential Skagit County Zoning Code updates. It reviews agritourism uses and outlines four possible approaches to creating fair, enforceable zoning to govern them.

For each of the six uses – farm stands; U-Pick and farm tours; farm stays; weddings; tasting rooms and restaurants; and seasonal events – the report includes a definition, the typical size and scale of the use, infrastructure and permits needed, and sample regulations from nearby counties.

For example, the report estimates that about 500 people a year visit the typical farm stand, while festivals and temporary and permanent wedding venues might draw 20,000 annual visitors.

A main point is how the activity relates to agriculture overall.

“We are trying to figure out how agricultural tourism can support agriculture,” Lisa Grueter told attendees of the February Washington State University Ag Summit. Grueter is a land-use expert with Berk Consulting, the public policy firm hired by Skagit County to lead the process.

Other goals include examining the relationship of agritourism to existing agriculture and making sure any new rules are fair to applicants and can be implemented and enforced by the County.

The report includes four options for moving forward. Doing nothing and keeping the current code in place – which would discourage new agritourism businesses from opening – is the default, first option.

Option A would build on the current code and fit agritourism within existing policies. It would ensure that “permanent” agritourism uses are accessory and connected to farms, but allow more flexibility in uses where there is a connection to the onsite farm, and the farm remains the primary use.

Option B would create an “overlay district” or “overlay zone” in which additional activities could occur in certain agricultural and rural zones, including land near major roads. Food service, tasting rooms and wedding venues could be allowed under this option.

Option C would allow rezones of parcels on a case-by-case basis as Small Scale Recreation and Tourism. This option would address the more intensive uses such as restaurants and tasting rooms in a site-specific manner without allowing them in Agricultural-Natural Resource Zones or Rural Resource-Natural Resource Lands.

Policies would also need to be consistent with the county comprehensive plan and Growth Management Act resource land protections.

The 60 participants in two March 30 public meetings seemed to favor Option A, the agritourism as accessory use option, Grueter told the Weekly News last week.

“No proposals will be developed until more input is gathered,” said Jennifer Rogers, assistant long range planner for Skagit County. There is still time to weigh in by completing the survey posted at https://publicinput.com/K8226.

The voices of farmers have been included through Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland and the 12 farmer-members of the Skagit County Agriculture Advisory Board, which advises the Skagit County Commissioners on land-use issues.

A main concern is that agritourism not interfere with the overall agricultural use of the property and neighboring properties.

“If you start covering farmland, graveling, putting in parking lots and infrastructure, you’re very close to starting down the road to where the farm is no longer productive,” Hedlin said.

Traffic is another challenge.

Hedlin calls the Tulip Festival “a wonderful thing” but notes that while his farm expects and has adapted to the traffic, “you wouldn’t want to do one of those sorts of things every month.”

Economics is at the heart of this question, said another farmer who asked not to be identified.

“Twenty years ago, farming had more opportunities to make money because we had processing plants for sweet corn, pickles and peas,” he said. “Only potato farming has shown the equivalencies of bringing in revenue at a certain scale and labor factor.”

“If dairy were doing better, there would be no wedding barns.”

Hedlin concurs. “I could probably do three rock concerts a year on our farm and make a better living than we do now,” he said. “Is that in the best long-term interests of agriculture? Probably not.

“Farmland has all kinds of competing uses, including development and even some environmental restoration projects,” he said. “At the end of the day, farmland is always the cheapest place to go. Someday society needs to answer the question, why is land that will grow 80 different crops $10,000 and acre, and land for McDonald’s a million an acre?”

The Skagit County Agritourism Study is at publicinput.com/K8226.