At the same time, human-caused climate change marches onward, bringing more severe and frequent flooding, heat waves, precipitation events and sea-level rise to Washington communities.
Together, a warming planet and increasing development pressure have state and local leaders rethinking how cities and counties should prepare for the years to come.
"The way that our cities are organized impacts our carbon footprint," said state Rep. Alex Ramel, a Democrat who represents portions of Whatcom and Skagit counties along with San Juan County. "It also impacts our ability to be resilient in the face of a changing climate."
Climate resilience refers to a community's ability to prepare for and recover from extreme weather events and other impacts driven by human-caused climate change.
Planning for the coming decades has been deemed so crucial for local governments that state law requires it: Under the 1990 Growth Management Act, counties and cities must craft lengthy documents called comprehensive plans, which are the "centerpiece of local planning efforts," according to Washington's Municipal Research and Services Center. The Growth Management Act was originally enacted to help communities deal with rapid population growth, reduce strain on public infrastructure and prevent urban development from sprawling out into natural spaces and rural areas, according to nonprofit Futurewise.
Some state policymakers are trying to reform the Growth Management Act to better suit a warming world. A number of related bills have been introduced during this year's 60-day legislative session, which is already about halfway through. Ramel said that the most significant bill is HB 1099, introduced by state Rep. Davina Duerr in 2021.
If HB 1099 passes, climate change would be added as a goal of the Growth Management Act. Local comprehensive plans would be required to support state ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — net-zero by 2050 — as well as prepare communities to be resilient to climate change impacts.
But this bill — scheduled for an executive session in the Senate Committee on Housing & Local Government on Thursday, Feb. 17 — would add work to the comprehensive planning process, and local governments are often already stretched thin. Whatcom is no exception: At a Climate Impact Advisory Committee meeting in February, County Executive Satpal Sidhu acknowledged that the county needs more people working on climate. Funding and grant opportunities likely pass the county by, he said, since staff is so busy with other responsibilities.
"There is so much money sloshing around in the system," he said, noting that the county had 80 open positions at the time and is currently ironing out plans to hire a climate action manager.
This need for staff and funding is why it's significant that HB 1099 would allocate state money toward local governments' efforts to weave climate change into their comprehensive plans, Ramel and County Councilmember Kaylee Galloway said.
"It creates a pipeline for counties like Whatcom to be the first in the state to include these forward-thinking ideas," said Galloway, who was a primary author of the land use portion of the County's Climate Action Plan.
Whatcom's current comprehensive plan was adopted in 2016 and includes a section on climate change in the document's environment chapter. The plan is due for a state-mandated refresh in 2025, and the fate of HB 1099 will help determine how climate is integrated into the next plan, said the county's Planning and Development Services Director Mark Personius.
Planning For Climate Change
What does planning for climate change look like? It could mean prohibiting further development in areas that are at high risk of flooding from the Nooksack River or sea-level rise, Ramel said.
Whatcom's Climate Action Plan recommends that climate change be considered when approving new infrastructure, including developments, roads and bridges.
"Such actions were once viewed as radical and as a result, avoided," the document reads. "The result is that federal agencies are now using our tax dollars to move whole communities out of flood zones."
Climate-friendly communities could also look like denser neighborhoods, which reduce water and energy consumption, improve utility efficiencies and reduce the miles that people drive in fossil fuel-powered vehicles, according to Whatcom's Climate Action Plan.
"What we want to see is more of the beloved, historic neighborhoods you see in places like Bellingham," said Tim Trohimovich, director of planning and law at nonprofit Futurewise, which has advocated for HB 1099. " Fairhaven, for example."
There's one catch though: Fairhaven is an expensive place to live, Galloway said. She agrees that there should be more neighborhoods like it, but thinks the government should subsidize or incentivize developers to create more affordable housing.
Some policymakers and opponents of HB 1099 also worry that adding climate change to the Growth Management Act would drive housing prices up. Todd Myers is the environmental director at the conservative think tank Washington Policy Center, and he said he has no faith in land planning approaches to environmental problems.
"The purpose of growth management is to restrict where housing can be," Myers said. "High prices are clearly a consequence."
State Sen. Simon Sefzik echoed these concerns in a January questionnaire he completed for Whatcom County Council while being considered to replace Sen. Doug Ericksen, who represented the 42nd Legislative District and died in December after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
"My fear is that a heavy-handed reinterpretation of the GMA will exacerbate the affordable housing crisis and inhibit the ability of local governments to responsibly manage growth," Sefzik wrote.
(c)2022 The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
