Planning and Development Services

On May 17th, the 7th Grade class at Immaculate Conception Regional School heard a presentation about Envision Skagit 2060, then engaged in a discussion about what they would like to see in the future for their communities and Skagit County. Teacher Sarah Rutherford then assigned the students to fill out Envision Skagit written comment forms. Their thoughtful and imaginative responses are below.

Abby Dimock, Burlington
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value the nature, such as: parks, rivers, lakes, trees, and plants. I would like that to be retained.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? Park buildings. We don't have a lot of buildings for each park, which means you have to use a port-a-potty.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? Keeping the fish here. We can not pollute the water, and not drain sewer or chemicals in it.
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Garrett Yeo, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value the culture of Skagit Valley. The farmland, salmon and other fish, forest, and wildlife. I think we need to preserve the farmland, salmon, and the forest.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? I think that Skagit County is great. But we might need a little more commerce in the Mount Vernon area. Maybe some more shops or local restaurants.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? I think that pollution may become a problem. There are so many beautiful resources that it may be hard to keep pollution under control. Also, population growth may be a problem if not dealt with eventually.
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Kaitlyn Hefferline, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I think that the Skagit Valley has a lot of everything, shopping, housing, restaurants, and farmland. I think that farmland is one of the unique aspects of Skagit Valley and should be preserved.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? I think that we could have more apartments on top of stores to provide more housing. We also could put in parks with the space we saved from putting apartments on top of stores. As a community, we need to work on supporting local businesses to maintain the small familiar town vibe.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? One of the biggest challenges will be to figure out how to preserve farmland, while the population continues to grow. We will need to figure out if we will expand upward or outward.
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Katie Cram, La Conner
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? The most valuable thing to me about Skagit Valley is the beautiful tulips and the beautiful farmland. Something that is special to me about Skagit Valley is the parks and trails. I think that is one thing that needs to be retained here in Skagit Valley.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? Something that is lacking here is garbage everywhere on the highways. I think that we could [work] harder on cleaning ditches that are full of litter and trash. This can make Skagit Valley a better place in the future.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? One of the greatest challenges could be too many houses. Also another could be houses taking up farmland. We can make more condos on top of stores to conserve more space and not take up farmland and beautiful tulip fields for houses.
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Maddy Holmberg, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value the fact that Skagit Valley is beautiful. I think we need to make it beautiful in the sense that there will be no grimy streets or garbage filled parks. We should also strengthen our already tight community.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? I think what is missing is the small town feeling Skagit Valley's towns used to have. We should work on regaining that small town feel by having shops or parks in walking distance of the places in Skagit Valley.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? One of the greatest challenges will be the population growth. It will be hard to have the small town feel we used to have if we have thousands more people. But as I said before, having shops, parks, or anything else entertaining nearby can regain that small town feel our Skagit Valley used to have.
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Vanessa Garcia, Burlington
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? What I value most about Skagit Valley is the tulips.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? We need to have a more attractive county. We could do this by not polluting.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? There are a lot of empty buildings. We need to support business by buying at their business.
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Ben Johnson, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value the farmland and forests most in the Skagit Valley. The Valley has incredibly fertile farmland, and beautiful forests that need to be retained.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? I think the Skagit Valley is lacking walkable city center areas that are easy to get around in. We need to work harder to stop sprawl and retain the small town environment.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? The greatest challenges are growth and climate change. We need to be smart where to put people, and how to make our cities more efficient.
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Erik Lukner, Sedro-Woolley
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? The people, the culture, the environment, the city, the parks, the Skagit River, the stores, and the food. The downtown historical district and the culture is special and unique and needs to be preserved.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? I think a better transportation[system], and allow more industry to come to Skagit Valley. In the future, we need to improve infrastructure, housing developments, and an efficient transportation system.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? The population increase, pollution, preserving Skagit Valley, and traffic congestion. Personally, I don't' know how to address this, but we will find a way.
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Alicia Morgan, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? What I value the most is downtown. I'm within walking distance there. It is sad to see that some shops are doing well, while others suffer or lose business. I think a few more newer shops and condominiums could make it more popular.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? What is missing here is a place, that is safe where teens can come tighter and have fun. We need to work on a broader picture of what everyone could agree on and start working on that plan.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? The greatest challenges we have are how much commercial stuff can we bring in without it hurting our land space for agriculture use. We can make enclosed communities of houses with of course enough space for privacy.
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Connor Barton, Anacortes
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value our saltwater. I've always fished in the San Juan Islands, and if [they are] polluted it may be hard to do this.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? We need better house planning in the future. This could protect our forest lands.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? We can preserve our forest. We need to build houses not near our farmland.
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Colton Saben, Burlington
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? Not too much traffic. Also, I think we should keep the buildings small not huge.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? Transportation. I think we need more buses. Also keeping the county clean.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? Pollution. Go green. I think there are too many cars and not enough bikes and skateboards.
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Olivia, Big Lake
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? To me, I value the community the most. I think creating a balance between residential and commercial sites is important, along with our environment, so I think we should protect that.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? I think we need to work on keeping small businesses running, so we can start successful companies and provide many good jobs for people wanting to enter the business.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? I think keeping the environment safe will be our biggest problem in the future. Making sure that businesses understand and find ways to keep it safe will help us in the future. Also, making kids educated in protecting the environment will help us for the future.
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Makayleigh, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? The tulips and that there isn't a lot of traffic. Also that there is not really big buildings. The beauty of our city needs to be retained.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? We need more unique buildings and stores. We need to bring back more life and get rid of all the empty buildings.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? The way we do business because we build more buildings which is good, but instead of building, we should fill all the empty places and if the business wants to they can add on to the building.
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Haley Cyr, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value the trails and all the woods and the tulips. I think that the tulips are special because people come from all over to see them. Also, I value all the open space where you see animals and trees.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? More trees and more areas without homes. We need to conserve the trees and not let them get torn down, otherwise animals won't have homes. We are also lacking people who don't litter.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? Too many stores and houses are being built. Not enough plants are being planted. We need to build more condos that are on top of each other so we don't use up too many trees or land.
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Ryan McLaughlin, Mount Vernon, Washington
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I like the tulips and the fact that everyone is friendly. Also, downtown Mount Vernon is nice. We need to save the old buildings in Mount Vernon and the tulip fields.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? We are lacking modern apartments. We need to work harder on using space wisely so that we can get more people.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? The growing population. We can build condos and save on space. Also, we can make it so that no one has 10 acres to themselves, then build on that land.
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Addie Otterstetter, Mount Vernon
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? The people, the parks and forests. The buildings are older and smaller.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? Keeping it clean and keeping the forests.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? The amount of people. We can build more buildings and houses. We can make the city bigger while trying to keep most of the forest and recreation land.
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Nick Ortiz, Burlington, Washington
What do you value most about the Skagit Valley? What is special and unique that needs to be retained? I value the friendly people and welcoming communities.

What is missing or lacking here? What do we need to work harder on in the future as a community? We are lacking on stores closer to homes. We need to build stores closer to some communities that people can walk to.

What are the greatest challenges facing Skagit Valley in the future - and what can we do to address them? We need cheaper houses. We can build houses closer to each other.
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