CITY OF MOUNT VERNON DOWNTOWN & WATERFRONT AREA MASTER PLAN

The City of Mount Vernon has commenced a comprehensive redevelopment plan for its historic downtown area.  The goal of that planning effort is to guide the investment of public and private resources in the downtown area over the next 20 years. However, flooding on the Skagit River has, for over a century, caused millions of dollars in damage to land and infrastructure and put human lives at risk.  The threat of flooding poses a major barrier to investment in the downtown area and limits the City's efforts to create a vibrant, attractive, and safe waterfront district. Unless flood protection measures are implemented, the area will continue to suffer from damaging floods and the local economy will continue to experience depressing effects due to the potential harm and uncertainties associated with future floods

Project Purpose

The purpose of the Mount Vernon Downtown Flood Protection Project is to protect the City's downtown area from flood damage up to and including the 100-year event on the Skagit River. In addition to flood protection, the project's goals include enhancing public access to the shoreline and river and maintaining the existing availability of parking in the downtown area.

CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE UPDATE

The City of Mount Vernon is currently in the process of preparing proposed revisions to the City's critical area regulations in accordance with the provisions of the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA).  Project objectives include:

• Establish standards that reflect the unique qualities of environmentally sensitive areas in our community and locally determined priorities;

• Adopt regulations that are clear and predictable;

• Provide property owners with a degree of flexibility to design customized solutions to protect critical areas; and

• Utilize Best Available Science in preparing and implementing the revised regulations.