The perennial struggle between protecting wetlands and encouraging farming tilted at least temporarily toward wetlands Monday at a Planning Commission meeting. The nine-person group took one of the final steps toward protecting Island County land zoned “rural” under the county’s critical-areas ordinance. That law protects wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, geologically hazardous areas and frequently flooded areas.

After a series of rulings and appeals stretching back to the late 1990s, the Growth Management Hearings Board required the county to apply the critical-areas ordinance to agricultural activities on rural-zoned land. (It has long been clear that the ordinance does not apply to land zoned “agricultural,” so long as the owners abide by best management practices.)

The county passed an emergency interim ordinance doing so. Then it asked the Hearings Board to find that it had thereby complied with the board’s order.

The board found otherwise, siding with Whidbey Environmental Action Network (WEAN) in concluding on May 1 that an emergency interim ordinance, which is valid for only six months, was insufficient.

A permanent ordinance is required, the board said.

On Monday, the planning commission approved the proposed permanent ordinance and findings of fact requiring the application of the critical-areas ordinance to rural-zoned land. The commissioners may take up whether to adopt the new ordinance as early as Oct. 14. They need not adopt it, but “the expectation is that they will,” said Steve Erickson, WEAN’s litigation director.

Even the so-called permanent ordinance doesn’t really ensure permanence.

That law is subject to update as part of revising the county’s comprehensive plan, which must be completed by June 30, 2016.