INTRODUCTION: How Whatcom County Protected a Corrupt Natural Resources Planner—And Became Corrupt Itself
- Brian Gass
- Jan 18
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
When the Gatekeepers Become the Profiteers
There is only one entity that controls what is built, where, from whom, in what numbers, and ultimately what it will sell for—and that entity is your local planning department.
Want to split your lot? Not if you don't agree with your planning department. You pay thousands for a wetlands study from a licensed company, and your planning department can simply reject it–– not because it's invalid, but because they aren't on the "approved list". The planning department works on its schedule, with no quantifiable time frame and no way to complain without facing retribution. Your permit can take between 6 months, 3 years, or never.
Washington State has some of the most restrictive land use regulations in the country, creating what economists estimate as a 40 to 200 percent "regulatory surcharge" on land costs. This isn't scarcity driven by genuine supply constraints—it's manufactured regulatory scarcity that has locked out all but the upper-middle class from affordable housing.
It's not a "land shortage" either, in Washington State, LESS THAN 3.8% of all land is set aside for residential development. You heard that right.
The permitting process itself is punishing: expensive applications, restrictive requirements, and timelines that stretch for months or even years. It's hard enough navigating this system when you believe these officials are acting in the public interest.
But what happens when they're not?
Wetlands and critical areas have become the go-to tools for denying and obstructing individual property owners' plans.
THE SETUP
Imagine this: A natural resources planner for Whatcom County tells you that your land is almost entirely made up of wetlands. You wait over two years, going back and forth with reviews and rejections. Your builder ends up quitting over the frustration and delays.
Finally, you dump your lot at a 60% loss just to escape the nightmare.
Who did you "dump" your lot to? Matthew Mahaffie, the Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner who red-flagged your property and was the architect of your permitting nightmare.
Then, 18 months later, you find out that the same corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner Matt Mahaffie, flipped your lot—doing nothing to it—for three times what you sold it for.
ANOTHER SITUATION:
But it gets worse.
Approved, but not accepted. The new added cost.
I had no idea that a professionally licensed wetlands company can have its report rejected by a Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner. Then you can be "steered" to one of the county's "approved" wetlands companies? The list is here to download/see.
What the county doesn't tell you is that after PAYING MONEY to create a wetlands report by a LICENSED and CERTIFIED COMPANY, it doesn't guarantee that the consultant you chose will get their reports APPROVED.
You won't know until you've spent the money to have a report done and then go through the Russian Roulette process to see if it's "accepted".
Your new "approved" consultant suddenly finds more wetlands on your property than the first study showed. Now you're trapped: the Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner who pressured you into this situation is holding your project in their hands, controlling your financial future.
And then comes the pitch from the Whatcom County Natural Resources
Planner: "I can mitigate that wetland for you—for only $400,000 an acre."
Guess what property they're trying to use for that mitigation? A FREE LOT that same Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner bought from another disillusioned seller who was told their land was worthless due to—you guessed it—wetlands.
Seems like that "useless" term is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to your property. It's useless if you want to do something with it, but it's worth $400K an acre to the people who can control the value, but to you, it's only $10K.
You have every right to be outraged.
Sadly, this isn't a hypothetical. We're going to examine exactly how this situation unfolded—not once, but repeatedly—in the corrupt Whatcom County Planning Department. The pattern is consistent: planners who routinely reject independent wetland consultants' reports, steering property owners toward a select group of companies that "play ball."
Those companies conveniently find additional wetlands that create the need for mitigation. The same corrupt regulator who created the problem then profits from selling the solution—using land they acquired for pennies on the dollar through the same tactics.
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS
And here's where it gets truly brazen:
When the corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner, Matthew Mahaffie had his own properties permitted, there was another corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner who approved Mahaffie's wetland mitigation plan—in just 21 days, no less—just happened to be, at the same time, employed by the corrupt Matt Mahaffie's private company in Skagit County.
Whew! I know its confusing!
That's right, you read that correctly. This second corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner was working simultaneously for both Whatcom County and the corrupt Mahaffie's consulting business, reviewing his own boss's permits.
Think that the superiors at the corrupt Whatcom County Planning Department or even the corrupt Prosecuting Attorney himself would have a problem with all this? Nope.
When citizens finally lodge formal complaints about these obvious conflicts of interest and that Matt Mahaffie was using his position to enrich himself at the expense of the public, the "investigations" themselves were set up to deliver a pre-determined outcome.
In Whatcom County, the corrupt Prosecuting Attorney's office hired an outside law firm, which outsourced the investigation to another firm—creating layers of insulation from accountability.
They first tried to get away with only "interviewing" county officials who weren't under oath and had no obligation to tell the truth. Some had union attorneys at their side (actually just Mahaffie). They never interviewed the victims.
Sources confirmed that the Whatcom County Council REJECTED the first fake investigation and the incompetent and corrupted investigator was forced to interview a couple more Whatcom County employees, and the property owner who bought 4470 Castlerock from the corrupt Matt Mahaffie.
Here's the most egregious and shocking fact: The "investigator" never interviewed the "double-agent" planner. In fact, they actually HID HIM from the investigative process, moving him from the Planning Department to Public Works.
Then, the corrupt investigator characterized the "double agent" Natural Resources Planner in her report as a "former employee of the county who works for the corrupt Matt Mahaffie's company in Skagit."
SHOCKER: It turns out the second Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner never left the county's employ! They just moved him to a different department, and he's still there today!
So much for a fair investigation. This was a cover-up to protect the county and its employees, and screw the victims. Why? We are going to lay it out for everyone.
We will make the above link live as soon as we are ready to publish it!
Do you have the planners who are working on your permitting interact with you daily? Doubt it.
To add insult to injury, the Director of the corrupt Whatcom County Planning Department threatens anyone who dares to call them or their planners "corrupt." We will show you the letter, complete with the email CC'ing the county's two top prosecutors. I guess the county's prosecuting office now works to prosecute the hurt feelings of its corrupt planners.
But neither the Director nor anyone at the Whatcom County Planning Department gets to TELL US, or the public, what corruption is. We will know it when we SEE IT and good luck convincing anyone it's not there.
This is what happens when regulatory power becomes a tool for personal enrichment: the system that was supposed to protect property rights becomes a mechanism for theft—legal, bureaucratic, but theft nonetheless.
Over this series, we'll examine how this corruption unfolds in practice, who profits, who gets hurt, and why county governments work so hard to cover it up.
The First Installment, "When a Corrupt Whatcom County Planner Started Helping Himself", is available now.
Reserve your FREE copy!
Washington State has some of the strictest land-use policies in the country. What used to buy a starter home at 3-4x median income is now 8-10x!
First-time home buyers have been squeezed out of opportunity, wealth creation, stability, and choice.
Discover exactly how policy created this crisis—and the breakthrough solution that restores affordability without subsidies or disruption.
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