How does San Juan County’s Comprehensive Plan Update address our changing climate?
Known as the “Comp Plan,” the County’s Comprehensive Plan includes goals and policies to guide how our community will look in the future. This includes policies to protect our remaining forests, agricultural lands, and healthy shorelines; a blueprint for our community’s transportation needs; goals for developing housing to serve everyone in our community; and much more. Energy use, solid waste, the protection of habitats, sea-level rise, carbon sequestration, forest-fire risk, and adaptation to global warming are all topics that are touched upon in various sections, or “Elements,” of the Comp Plan. With this Comp Plan Update, the County is making decisions now that will guide its actions through 2036 — this offers an opportunity to respond to the climate crisis with goals and policies that minimize greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the new reality of rising seas, summer droughts, and frigid cold snaps. As community members in San Juan County, the opportunity to advocate for strong goals and policies for climate planning in the Comp Plan is right now.
Is there a specific section in the Comp Plan about climate?
Yes, the Climate Element is its own chapter within the most current County Draft Comprehensive Plan. The Growth Management Act requires local compressive plans to have a climate element that maximizes economic, environmental, and social co-benefits and prioritizes environmental justice in order to avoid worsening environmental health disparities. You can see the draft climate element chapter here. You can also see Friends’ suggestions for improving that section here.
How does the Comp Plan address the loss of forests and farms to development?
Compared to houses, sport courts, paved lots, and commercial development, forests and farms are “green” landscapes that can have profound climate benefits, including carbon sequestration and aquifer recharge. For this reason, and to help protect our County’s rural character, Friends is advocating for the County to zone more lands for farming and forestry. Agricultural Resource Lands and Forest Resource Lands, known together as Natural Resource Lands, have restrictions on what can be done and built on them. So, in addition to having climate benefits, designating more Natural Resource Lands protects our islands from getting overdeveloped. Please see Friends’ FAQ sheets about Agricultural and Forest Resource Lands for more information.
Unfortunately, the Comp Plan Update process also allows Natural Resource Lands to be “de-designated” and developed for other uses. And although this year there have not been any de-designation applications, this does not mean there won’t be any in the coming years. Friends strongly opposes removing protections from Natural Resource Lands and successfully prevented de-designations during the last update.
Does the Comp Plan address energy transition needs?
Yes, though more is needed. Renewable energy and energy efficiency appear in several different Elements of the Comp Plan. In the Utilities Element of the Comp Plan, the County has set goals and policies to
incentivize energy conservation and the adoption of renewable energy. For instance, a newly proposed goal is to support more home solar installations.
Energy use also appears in the Housing Element of the Comp Plan; the County has established goals for incentivizing low- impact development and high energy efficiency in new construction projects. The Comp Plan prioritizes channeling new development into Friday Harbor, Eastsound, and Lopez Village, and this will save energy by increasing efficiency of service delivery and by reducing travel times for our working population.
In addition, in the Land Use Element, the County sets policies for what types of land can be compatible with renewable energy projects like solar farms. All of this is a good start, but more advocacy is needed to encourage the County to make these various sections stronger. For example, in the
Photo courtesy of the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau / Robert S. Harrison Photography
Transportation Element, more aggressive language should be included to discourage the use of gas-powered vehicles over the coming decades and to provide more structural options for bicycles and mass transit.
What about increased wildfire risks and more frequent summer droughts?
Newly proposed language in the Land Use Element does incentivize practices that reduce wildfire risks, such as thinning overgrown forests and removing “ladder fuels.” Having less forest biomass can also help lessen the drawdown of local water tables during summer droughts. However, the language in the Comp Plan focuses on incentives and encouragement — given the catastrophic risks involved, it would be more sensible to mandate risk-mitigation measures whenever possible. Beyond the scope of the Comp Plan, additional wildfire-prevention efforts are urgently needed in our community.
Does the Comp Plan address solid waste, recycling, and composting?
In the San Juan Islands, most waste has to be shipped off-island and transported to landfills or recycling facilities. This increased energy use for transportation increases our carbon footprint, and underscores an even greater need for waste and plastics reduction and local recycling and composting, compared to other communities. While the Comp Plan does address these issues somewhat, such as by suggesting incentives for composting and biochar facilities in the Land Use Element, more emphasis on these issues is needed.
What can I do?
Let the County Council know that you support climate resiliency and strong environmental stewardship in San Juan County! Encourage them to designate more lands as highly protected Natural Resource Lands, incentivize transitions away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy (done the right way), protect rural areas from overdevelopment, and help reduce solid waste and energy use County-wide. Natural Resource Lands offer locally sourced food and workable timber products with a small carbon footprint, playing an integral role in the long-term success of our local economy. They also provide some of the most iconic, stunning views on the islands. Friends believes that when we take care of our resources, they take care of us in return. We can simultaneously preserve precious habitats and natural landscapes and utilize our local resources to support a vibrant farming and forestry sector. That belief has driven Friends to oppose the conversion of resource lands to more intense development and to advocate for a net gain policy to protect farmlands by zoning them for long-term agricultural use.
San Juan County Council contact info:
- Kari McVeigh (District 1) email: karim@sanjuancountywa.gov, phone: 360-370-7478
- Justin Paulsen (District 2) email: justinp@sanjuancountywa.gov, phone: 360-370-7477
- Jane Fuller (District 3) email: janef@sanjuancountywa.gov, phone: 360-370-7475
Send Comp Plan update comments to: compplancomments@sanjuanco.com.