Allowing RVs as temporary housing, requiring low-impact rules for development and naming an agriculture ombudsperson are some of the solutions that Island County residents can get behind when it comes to addressing the lack of affordable housing, supporting local farmers and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Last year, the Washington State Department of Commerce awarded about $2 million in Climate Commitment Act funds to 24 community-based organizations to help them gather community input to inform the development of the comprehensive plans in their local jurisdictions.

In Island County, Island Roots Housing, the Whidbey Environmental Action Network and the Agricultural Resource Committee for Island County used the funds to survey the community and presented the findings to the Island County Planning Commission last Wednesday.

Rose Hughes, managing director of Island Roots Housing, said the group surveyed more than 200 individuals and over 12 organizations focused on housing, social services, education, advocacy, business and the environment.

According to her presentation, respondents indicated the lack of available and affordable rentals for all income levels to be the main concern. The scarcity of housing for low-income households was ranked second-highest concern, followed by the lack of available and affordable homes for purchase and developable land, the growing homeless population, the lack of housing options for seniors and, finally, housing discrimination.

As pointed out by Hughes, a big chunk of the county’s workforce is made up of individuals who would qualify for subsidized “formally affordable” housing, she said. These include teachers, restaurant staff, child care providers, landscapers, social service providers, retail salespeople, road crews and librarians, according to the presentation.

With few options, a growing number of residents have been opting to live in RVs. To support this, the presentation quoted a South Whidbey School District housing liaison, who said that the number of families living in trailers and RVs grew from three to 34 over the past five years.

To tackle this issue, 71% of survey respondents said they are in favor of allowing RVs to be used as temporary housing, with the majority of those interviewees clarifying the RVs should have access to utilities and septic and go through health and safety inspections. Additionally, 67% of respondents said they support the establishment of designated RV areas for individuals in need of transitional or emergency housing.

About 87% of respondents — including a number of organizations devoted to housing and homelessness — find that the county does not have emergency shelters and support services that can adequately meet needs. To better address this, many respondents recommended expanding shelter options and designating locations for temporary and transitional housing.

Hughes said there has been “tremendous” support for diverse housing types, with the majority of respondents indicating multi-family housing as the type most needed in the county, followed by accessible and supported housing for seniors, accessory dwelling units, tiny homes, single-family homes, temporary housing, manufactured homes and mobile home parks.

Other suggestions include creating tax incentives to build affordable housing, changing zoning rules to allow for more affordable abodes, allocating money to affordable housing, regulating short-term rentals, ensuring affordable housing remains affordable, supporting people with repairs and adaptations that would allow them to stay in their homes and increasing community engagement in planning.

When asked for input on growth strategies, 83% of respondents indicated they support or strongly support focusing growth in urban growth areas. About 57% of people said they were in favor of rural clusters while 19% opposed the idea.

Marnie Jackson, executive director of the Whidbey Environmental Action Network, or WEAN, said county and state laws, policies and previous comprehensive plans have disproportionately been shaped by people with “identities of privilege,” resulting in some voices missing from the conversation. Both Island Roots and WEAN provided surveys in English, Spanish and Tagalog, though Jackson and Hughes acknowledged there’s more that can be done to reach out to community members of color, with Hughes indicating Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related fears among the barriers to outreach.

As evinced in the presentations, South and Central Whidbey perspectives were also disproportionately represented in the surveys, with few responders from Oak Harbor and even less from Camano Island, despite outreach efforts extending to those areas.

Jackson suspects this is the reason why results suggest a low interest in expanding public access to urban and suburban green spaces, which would benefit people living in urban areas like Oak Harbor.

According to WEAN’s findings, about 90% to 98% of respondents said they were “very” or “somewhat concerned” about groundwater contamination, habitat decline, aquifer recharge and wetland loss, while 76.7% of respondents said they were “very” or “somewhat concerned” about fireworks, 82.39% said they were very or somewhat concerned about Navy aircraft noise, and 89.49% said they were “very” or “somewhat concerned” about stream health.

Jackson pointed out that no one indicated they were not concerned at all about stream health. This is likely because stream health was discussed in detail at a county commissioners meeting in March 2024, where Commissioner Melanie Bacon described the findings as “horrifying.”

To protect streams and wetlands, the county could better enforce critical areas ordinances, which Jackson said the county is too “under-resourced and underactive” to enforce. The county could also expand, protect and restore riparian buffers; identify and invest in areas of highest concern; enforce mitigation requirements and increase standards; improve wastewater treatment practices and enforcement; shift from stormwater management to water recapture and more, according to the presentation.

Forests were identified by more than one-third of respondents as the area with highest need of increased protection, followed by wetlands, shorelines, offshore marine areas and finally prairies, though Jackson added that these habitats affect and depend on one another.

To protect forests and aquifers, the county could expand critical drainage areas, prohibit lifting development moratoria on some logged land, advocate in Olympia for island-specific considerations, incentivize restoration of contiguous and interconnected habitat, monitor the health and habitat of indicator species populations, improve utilities and infrastructure and more, according to the presentation.

Out of 352 respondents, 199 supported requiring low-impact development and drainage plans for all new construction. Many viewed bulkheads on shoreline property as “very harmful” (133 respondents) and favored removing unpermitted bulkheads (118 respondents). Restoring under-utilized housing was seen as “very helpful” by 158 respondents. There was a neutral stance on investing in sewer or septic alternatives in Freeland (133 respondents) and Clinton (144 respondents). A majority of interviewees saw carbon-neutral development as either “very helpful” (133 respondents). Additionally, 161 respondents strongly supported expanding waste diversion programs, and 143 indicated they found expanding tax benefits for natural conservation on private property to be “somewhat helpful.”

As the world experiences sea level rise, Jackson called for the planning of the wetlands of today and tomorrow, as these habitats play an important role in climate mitigation. On top of proactive planning, she recommends mapping the islands’ wetlands as there are some that might have not been formally discovered, thus can’t be protected until they are.

The Agriculture Resources Committee for Island County, also known as “ARCIC,” is a group that “advocates, educates and builds connections” to support the county’s farmers. Over the span of six months, the group collected data from the farming community and stakeholders while consulting with the American Farmland Trust in this process.

The findings, which were collected from a survey and a meeting with farmers at the Nordic Hall, were presented by Annie Jesperson, an ARCIC steering committee member, and Danielle Bishop, co-owner of Ebey Road Farm.

Agriculture today represents a more-than $20 million industry in the county. However, 80% of local farmers who provided input said they are concerned about the industry’s economic viability in the county, indicating that land affordability, production costs compared to market prices, availability of farm services and supplies are among the challenges they face.

According to Bishop, land use regulations, permitting and fee processes, the cost of labor, the need for affordable housing to attract and retain workers and decreasing water availability were also identified as challenges by the farmers, whose mental health may take a toll as a result of these stressors, Bishop and Jesperson said.

Bishop and Jesperson listed a variety of possible solutions to support the farming industry, such as investing in a meat processing facility; helping farmers access resources regarding regenerative farming practices to enhance carbon sequestration and respond to changing weather patterns; conducting an economic impact study of agriculture and developing a food system plan that addresses food security and emergency response; supporting incentive-based approaches to environmental stewardship; developing a strategy to address future water availability; exploring flexibility in zoning codes to allow for creative affordable housing solutions; reviewing the county code for barriers to agri-tourism activities that support farmers in diversifying their income; and ensuring that right-to-farm laws are enforced and that farms’ activities are protected from nuisance complaints as population grows near agricultural lands.

Farmers responded positively to the idea of a formal county agricultural advisory committee, as well as an agricultural ombudsperson to improve communication and support agriculture at the local government level.

“While many of the stressors that affect farmers and the viability of their farms are out of the local government’s control,” Bishop said, “having direct input from the farm community on the day-to-day with county regulations is a practical way to ensure that farming continues to remain a viable and sustainable profession in Island County.”

(Photo by Linda LaMar) A lake on private property of forested wetlands in Freeland. The health of streams and water availability on the island were among the top concerns indicated by people who took a survey by the Whidbey Environmental Action Network.