Welcome to Skagit County
November 15th, 2011
Skagit County Releases
Envision Skagit 2060 Citizen Committee's Final Report and Recommendations
SKAGIT COUNTY - Skagit County
has released the Envision Skagit 2060 Citizen Committee's final report and recommendations,
which are now available on the project website at www.skagitcounty.net/envisionskagit,
and will soon be available in hard copy.
The Citizen Committee, which met from September 2010 through June 2011, consisted
of 12 citizen volunteers who were selected from a larger pool of applicants
by a committee of county commissioners and city and town mayors. Over the course
of their work, one of the committee's primary tasks was to listen to the community
as the committee developed a vision and recommendations for the future of the
Skagit Valley.
In addition to meeting with local, regional, and national experts, the Citizen
Committee hosted community meetings in Edison, Anacortes, La Connor, Concrete,
Mount Vernon, Sedro-Woolley, and Burlington. They held additional listening
sessions with specific groups, including the agricultural community, the Latino
and Spanish-speaking community, and youth from local schools. The committee
also received comments through the project website and from presentations to
a wide variety of service and interest groups. In total, the committee heard
from over 400 residents.
The committee's report and recommendations address the following issues:
- Regional coordination,
collaboration, and cooperation
- Natural resource lands
and industries
- Environmental resources
and values
- Compact communities and
conservation development
- Sustainable transportation
system
- Water
- Housing variety and affordability
- Economic vitality
- Climate change
"The Envision Skagit
Citizen Committee has developed this vision and set of recommendations for what
we believe today's Skagit County residents want Skagit County to be like in
2060 - and what we should do now to help bring that about," says the report's
executive summary.
"While our work as a formal committee has ended…that is far from the
end of the larger Envision Skagit process. Before any law or significant government
policy can be changed, we encourage elected officials to hold public listening
sessions to take further public comment. A 50-year plan takes time to implement.
The conversation is just starting. It is the people of Skagit County that will
make this happen."
For more information, contact Emma Whitfield at emmaw@co.skagit.wa.us
or at (360) 419-7667.