Agritourism stakeholders to county: slow down, step back and try again

An adhoc Agritourism Stakeholder Working Group created in July has submitted agritourism policy concepts to the Skagit County Planning Commissioners. The group's goal is to help the county shape code that lets large and small farmers and venue operators thrive.

The group was formed after the Planning Commission's July 25 public hearing on agritourism zoning recommendations made by the county's Agricultural Advisory Board. Those recommendations proposed changing the definition of "agritourism" to exclude "celebratory gatherings, weddings, parties or similar uses that cause the property to act as an event center or that take place in structures specifically designed for such events."

As well, the number of events permitted under the "Temporary Events" classification would be reduced from 24 to 12 calendar days per year. Such a reduction "means no one could be legally permitted to participate in the 30-day Tulip Festival," Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland Executive Director Allen Rozema told this reporter.

The first of the 52 people who commented during the July 25 hearing endorsed the AAB's recommendations.

"Non-agricultural activities such as weddings, concerts and meetings are going to interfere with the right to farm," said AAB member Randy Good of Sedro-Woolley. "If these venues are allowed, agriculture in Skagit County as we know it today will be gone forever."

Those were fighting words for supporters of Save Skagit Venues, founded by Christianson's Nursery, Maplehurst Farms in south Mount Vernon and the Salt Box on Fir Island Road.

Fir Island wedding planner Lacey Larsen estimated that event venues and related florists, caterers, makeup artists and equipment rental companies bring in 18.9 to 31.5 million dollars annually. "This is a luxury industry," she concluded. "People want to spend money on it." Other speakers pointed out that it's an industry that county coffers cannot do without.

Small and large farmers spoke to the need for supplemental income sources. Larry Jensen from Produce Lane noted that agritourism should be looked at "from a perspective of how do we keep people farming." Otherwise, he warned, small and large farms "will become estates for rich people who are coming out of Seattle who don't need to work."

Angela Hayton of Hayton Farms said venues on Fir Island don't interfere with land she and her dad farm. But Mikala Staples Hughes of the neighboring Hughes Family Farm addressed the complexities of big farmers working 40- and 50-acre parcels rented from 20 or more landowners.

"Farmers lose operational hours to individual requests by neighbors to not spray when they are home, or they choose to skip an area of a field when digging spuds because the dust could ruin the neighbor's barbeque," she said. "Or maybe they have to skip a pole with a big gun when they're irrigating because vendors are setting up chairs at the neighboring wedding venue. These challenges are paired with the already complicated nature of farming as we are at the mercy of wind, rain and crop maturity."

John Christianson of Christianson's Nursery hosts weddings to restore old buildings on his property.

"Whenever I see a barn falling down I think gosh, can't somebody do something?" he told the crowd. "They're being replaced by ugly metal buildings that look very industrial. There's no image of Skagit Valley farmland that shows ugly metal buildings. Repurposing them and certainly wedding venues seems to be the path that allows one to make improvements."

Amy Frye of Boldly Grown Farm was among those who wondered why the results of previous focus groups and public surveys, which seemed to favor agritourism, were not reflected in the proposed changes. 

"It seemed that the original work produced by BERK consulting did a better job taking the needs and perspectives of multiple stakeholders into account," she said after the meeting.

Connie Funk of Pleasant Ridge urged everyone to get along. "Without the people here, there are no farms. And for people that have venues on farm property, they consider it sacred too. So let's have conversations that include everyone's voice at the table and let's be neighborly to each other."

While the Planning Commissioners hoped to wrap up the code process by October, just about every speaker at the hearing pleaded for them to slow down, extend public comment and really listen to all stakeholders.

During his remarks, Rozema announced that the next day, SPF would "start a dialog again with Ag Advisory Board members, with the farm community, with the venue community – the agritourism community – to try to find some common ground." SPF would pay for a facilitator to help the group create code recommendations that large and small farmers, venue operators and other stakeholders could agree on.

Christianson's, Maplehurst Farm, the Washington Bulb Company, Gordon Skagit Farms, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Boldly Grown Farms and others participated in the multi-stakeholder working group. Their recommendations can be retrieved at skagitonians.org/agritourism-stakeholder-working-group

At the SPF table, Frye advocated for code that addressed the needs of smaller farms. "Almost two-thirds of Skagit County farms are counted as 'small and mid-sized farms'," said Rozema. "They really need an agtourism component in order to vertically integrate, like wreath-making classes, farm-to-table dinners and other interactions between farmers and the public."

Using a consensus decision-making model, the ad hoc group "ground it out" in twice-weekly meetings for five weeks, said Rozema, in order to meet the extended August 17 public comment deadline.

"It was really looking at the angle of all the people involved, seeing how to come together and create a solution that benefited everyone, that everyone felt good about and that everyone could support," said participant Emma Christianson, who is optimistic about the results.

The group's proposals would create a fixed number of "limited entry permits" for farm venues that would be renewed every three years; restrict venues serving up to 100 guests to 24 events a year; and allow those serving 100-plus guests to host more than 24 depending on the results of inspections by the county hearing examiner "and provided that events do not create a detrimental level of electrical interference, line voltage noise fluctuation, noise, vibration, smoke, dust, odors, heat, glare, traffic or other impacts to adjacent farming operations, neighbors and/or other environmental impacts on the surrounding area."

Small farms could host up to 25 people for on-site education, workshops and training.

Perhaps influenced by John Christianson's passion for history, the group recommends that venues must use existing buildings. No new venue buildings could be built except when using the footprint of an existing building. "This would prevent someone from buying property, starting a farm, building a special purpose building and starting a venue," said Rozema. "The idea is to breathe new life into existing buildings."

These recommendations, along with hundreds of other comments, are in the hands of the Planning Commission, which has scheduled a review of public comment for Sept. 26 and deliberations on Oct. 10.

"Twenty years from now Skagit County and the Skagit County farming community will look a lot different than it does today," said Ag Advisory Board member Michael Trafton at the July 25 hearing. "Is [our choice] going to be something we'll all look back on and be proud of, or something that we look back on and regret?"