Good News for Big Lake: State Growth Board Confirms County’s Authority to Look Beyond 200 Feet to Protect Critical Areas

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — July 23, 2026 — In a decision with real significance for Big Lake, the Washington State Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) has confirmed that Skagit County’s critical-areas review is not confined to a 200- to 300-foot boundary around a proposed development. When the facts show that a critical area farther away may be affected, the County’s Planning Director has the authority to require review of the project’s impacts on that critical area.

The GMHB issued its Final Decision and Order on July 20, 2026 in Case No. 26-2-0004c, a challenge to Skagit County’s 2025 update of its Critical Areas Ordinance brought in part by Jan M. Edelstein and Friends of Skagit County. Interpreting Skagit County Code 14.24.080, the GMHB held that the ordinance’s fixed review distances “do not limit the Director’s authority to require review of impacts beyond those distances when the facts warrant it”. In addition, the decision states that “…. the ordinance’s “may be affected” language provides a basis “for requiring critical areas review to any affected critical area…

For Big Lake, that interpretation matters. In his November 19, 2024 opinion assessing the Overlook Crest proposal, Dr. Richard R. Horner, a stormwater expert for more than forty years, concluded that stormwater from the proposed hillside development above Big Lake would carry additional phosphorus and other pollutants into the lake. By Dr. Horner’s analysis, the lake’s phosphorus levels have already more than tripled since 1999. Under the GMHB’s ruling, evidence like Dr. Horner’s is exactly the kind of fact that should have the Planning Director look beyond the 200- to 300-foot line for critical areas that may be

affected, such as Big Lake. Skagit County could require future development applicants to provide professional critical-area reports assessing their projects’ impacts on Big Lake, even where the lake is farther from a project than the ordinance’s default distance of 200’.“This decision is an important step forward in our efforts to protect Big Lake,” said Jan M. Edelstein. “The Overlook Crest stormwater filtration, discharge and conveyance system must protect Big Lake from pollution and further degradation as required by SCC

14.16.310(7)(b)(iv).”2 “This is another milestone in Friends’ efforts to protect Big Lake,” said Ellen Bynum, Executive Director of Friends of Skagit County. “Our first appeal in 1996 resulted in a non-degradation standard for the Overlook golf course parcels. This new ruling will help protect Big Lake from pollution for other developments. Dr. Richard Horner is an emeritus research professor at the University of Washington, author of three books and dozens of peer-reviewed papers, and has specialized in stormwater and surface-water management for more than four decades. He also served on the National Academy of Sciences panel on reducing stormwater’s contribution to water pollution.

About Friends of Skagit County

Friends of Skagit County is a non-profit citizen organization organized in 1991 dedicated to protecting Skagit County’s rural character, farmland and natural resources and the environment, including the health of Big Lake.