Skagit County is able to waive much of its land-use codes — including a portion of its flood damage prevention ordinance — because of a little-used state law called the housing cooperation law.

County commissioners used that state law in November to waive many of the county’s land-use regulations to help get a 50-unit housing complex aimed at farmworkers off the ground.

It was one of the rare instances the county has invoked the housing cooperation law, which is intended to encourage publicly funded low-income housing projects.

By waiving several county land-use codes, the commissioners effectively gave the Raspberry Ridge project the green light to go forward. This spring the county completed an environmental review of the project under the State Environmental Policy Act, commonly called SEPA.

In most cases, those who disagree with an environmental determination may challenge it to the county hearing examiner. But county commissioners also chose to waive that provision in this instance.

Instead, those who find fault with the environmental determination have just one option: taking their case to Superior Court.

The housing cooperation law was created years ago to help cut barriers to building housing that would benefit low-income people. It’s a broad law that allows the county to forgo its land-use rules, change zoning and, in this case, waive its flood rules to help get a low-income housing project off the ground.

“(It) waives just about any provision of local law,” said John Smith, executive director of the Housing Authority of Skagit County, during a speech Tuesday to commissioners.

But the housing cooperation law, like other laws long on the books, sometimes can come into conflict with the state’s Growth Management Act.

The Growth Management Act was created in 1990 to help rein in sprawl by concentrating growth in cities while encouraging lower density in rural areas.

The question over how to handle Raspberry Ridge’s sewage hits at the conflict between the state’s decade-old growth laws and previous laws that encouraged building affordable housing.

County Planning Director Tom Karsh brought up this conflict during Tuesday’s meeting, advising commissioners of two hurdles to the Raspberry Ridge project: sewage and flood damage prevention.

Karsh informed the commissioners of a recent decision made by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board that appeared to strike down a county’s ability to allow a rural property to hook into a city sewer system. The case centered on a place called Cooper’s Point in Thurston County. That decision has been appealed.

State law allows cities to extend their sewers to rural areas only if the sewers are necessary to avoid a public health problem and pose an environmental problem, such as causing contaminated shellfish beds, Karsh said.

Commissioner Ted Anderson wasn’t swayed by what Karsh had to say. He said although the growth board ruled against extending sewers in the Cooper’s Point case, it didn’t mean the growth board could not be challenged in court over the issue.