The residents of western Washington’s Skagit County, which stretches from the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound, are proud of their county’s agricultural heritage. Throughout the region’s idyllic patchwork of fields and country roads, crop identification signs tell visitors exactly what’s being grown, while family farmstands offer fresh produce.
The amount of farmland, however, has declined over the past century. Now, only 7% of Skagit County is agricultural. And as crop prices fluctuate, costs rise and extreme weather becomes more common, some farmers are turning to more elaborate forms of “agritourism” to make ends meet, opening event venues and expanding their roadside offerings. To some residents, the new buildings and parking lots mean traffic jams, tipsy guests and other disruptions to traditional farms. Others see special events and nontraditional agritourism as the only way to preserve their beloved farmland.
“People are really focused on protecting our natural resource — the soil,” said Jessica Davey, who runs a farm and wedding venue in Skagit County. “That’s our farmland. It’s rich. It’s fantastic. But who works that resource? Farmers. Why aren’t we focusing more on supporting the farmers?”
EACH YEAR, SKAGIT County’s nearly 900 small and large farms produce about $350 million worth of berries, tulips, apples, potatoes, dairy products and other commodities. Agriculture is both a significant local employer and the heart of the county’s identity. But while some locals feel that agritourism should limit itself to activities directly related to farming, others want a broader definition that includes event hosting.
“We want options available for creative revenue streams — to keep our farms in business, to keep farming,” said Amy Frye, who runs a 35-acre produce farm.
“To have a business that is absolutely dissociated from farmland seems kind of antithetical to the whole idea of agritourism,” countered Peter Browning, a Skagit County commissioner who grew up on an organic farm. “We don’t want to completely thwart any sort of business. But if it’s not related to farmland, stay away from the farmland and do it someplace else.”
Disagreement has been fierce at times, leading to raised voices at public meetings and souring relationships between once-friendly neighbors. And people’s opinions are unpredictable; for example, local farmers big and small, young and old, are found in all camps.
“We want options available for creative revenue streams — to keep our farms in business, to keep farming.”
Last year, the county’s Agricultural Advisory Board proposed changes to the county code which, if approved by the county commission, would clarify the definitions of agritourism and “agricultural accessory use.” The suggested language states that “celebratory gatherings, weddings, parties, or similar uses … are not agritourism.” The changes, which would reduce the number of events permitted for each landowner from 24 to 12 per year, would also mandate that they be related to farming activities on the property.
The agricultural board hoped the changes would provide clarity, but they only created more confusion. Many found them ambiguous; some complained that they could prohibit existing farmstands or impact farms that weren’t even engaging in agritourism. And residents already operating event venues in compliance with existing codes were alarmed by the proposed restrictions.
In early 2023, Davey purchased a rambling, long-vacant estate near Mount Vernon — Skagit County’s “big city” — and revitalized it as both an event venue that specializes in weddings and a working farm that produces hay, a variety of produce and landscaping trees. Given her background in construction lending, she said she was rigorous in her planning and permitting process: “I devoured the county code.” But she fears that the proposed ordinance will put her first-generation farm out of business.
The proposed changes in some ways ran counter to the results of a 2021 county survey, in which many residents cited the benefits of agritourism while noting that traffic and parking were becoming a problem. About 78% said restaurants, breweries and tasting rooms qualified as agritourism, while just under 50% of respondents agreed that weddings and other temporary events did too.
“The recommended changes were vastly different from the direction of that (report),” Frye said. “A lot of people felt like, ‘Whoa, what happened?’ There was whiplash.”
MICHAEL HUGHES, a Skagit farmer and chair of the Agricultural Advisory Board, said the changes reflect existing county and state protections for agricultural lands. Hughes fears that if those protections are weakened, “we’ll see more accelerated erosion of agricultural lands and the agricultural economy,” he said. The biggest concern, he added, is the conversion of agricultural land to other uses, such as parking lots and non-farm buildings.
Approximately 20 event venues are currently operating on agricultural lands in the county, according to Will Honea, Skagit’s chief civil attorney. The extent of agricultural land in Skagit County has shrunk from an estimated 150,000 acres in the 1940s to roughly 88,000 today. But the county has not published a formal inventory of agricultural land converted to event venues and other non-farm uses.
Davey and others said that without such an inventory, it’s irresponsible to treat agritourism as an enemy of agriculture.
The biggest concern is the conversion of agricultural land to other uses, such as parking lots and non-farm buildings.
“Agritourism has been the poster child for why we’re losing ag land,” Davey said. But that oversimplifies matters: “There’s industry pressure, housing pressure … a lot of different aspects go into that.”
The current debate is not unique to Skagit County. King County, home to both the city of Seattle and the traditionally agricultural Sammamish Valley, has been embroiled in a yearslong legal battle with the state over the regulation of bars, tasting vineyards and other event spaces on agricultural land. In a 5-4 opinion issued in September, Washington’s Supreme Court affirmed the state’s ability to limit the uses of agricultural lands, writing that “agricultural land must be conserved, by maintaining or enhancing the land, and by discouraging incompatible uses.”
Back in January, the Skagit County commissioners adopted a six-month moratorium on permit applications for new business uses, including events, on agricultural land. They have since extended it through next April and sent the code changes back to the county’s planning commission to be reconsidered. That leaves dozens of small farms facing economic uncertainty — and county residents still at odds.
“It’s definitely stressful to be in this limbo,” Davey said. And with so much ire focused on event venues, she said: “I feel kind of like a leper in my own community.”
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This article appeared in the November 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “What makes a farm a farm?”
