Last Tuesday, the La Conner Town Council unanimously agreed to receive technical assistance from King County in developing a project to prepare for current and future risks associated with sea level rise and river flooding.
La Conner and other participating jurisdictions will receive staffing support and up to 100 hours of consultation — at no cost to those communities — in addressing climate-related priorities identified by the community, according to a project narrative included in the Dec. 9 meeting packet.
This partnership is supported by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that was awarded to the Puget Sound Climate Preparedness Collaborative in 2024. The Collaborative is a network of organizations and government entities in the Puget Sound region that launched the Small Communities Cohort Program, which supports nine to 12 under-resourced tribes — including the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community — and small jurisdictions that are prone to wildfires and floods, according to the project narrative.
Planning Director Ajah Eills told the council that she hopes the collaboration will formally kick off in mid-January.
“We are getting a lot of expertise that we would not normally have access to,” she said. “I’m excited to dive into this with the technical expertise that King County can bring and hopefully we’ll be able to get some public engagement out of it as well.”
The Town’s draft scope of work estimates that a climate adaptation plan and recommendations for the comprehensive plan’s climate element update should be completed in the spring of 2027.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
