I’ve lived and worked in Skagit Valley most of my life. Born in raised, class of '94 bulldog and left with vivid memories of the way Skagit Valley looked like before the mall!
For many years that work was in restaurants. I cooked, managed, owned places, and learned the hard way how fragile small systems can be. Restaurants don’t leave much room for abstraction. You see very quickly where things break, what matters, and what happens when information doesn’t move cleanly. Right before COVID, I stepped away from that world and I taught myself to code.
It started with Python and databases, AI, then maps, automation, What interested me wasn’t the technology itself, but what it made possible: taking fragmented information and turning it into something coherent. Automating the repetitive parts. Creating space to think more clearly about how systems actually function.
The data about this place exists—parcels, zoning, water rights, taxes, permits, land use, planning rules, reports. But it’s spread across agencies, PDFs, portals, shapefiles, and spreadsheets that don’t connect. It’s technically public, but practically difficult to work with.
OpenSkagit is a personal project.
It’s also a learning project.
And it’s intentionally unfinished.
The word open matters here. Open data. Open questions. Open about what’s known, what’s uncertain, and what’s missing. This isn’t an official source, and it isn’t trying to replace one. It’s an attempt to connect public information and present it clearly and honestly for people who live here.
This site will change over time. Some things will be rough. Some data will be incomplete. I’m comfortable with that. I’d rather build something transparent and useful than wait for polish that never arrives.
If you live in Skagit Valley and have ever wondered why something works the way it does—or why it doesn’t—this project is for you.
— Ian