As Kidder Mathews continues to work with City of Yelm officials to come up with potential development options for the city-owned 640-acre lot southwest of Yelm, City Administrator Todd Stancil said he’s hopeful to bring the council multiple development options on Aug. 27.
He said that every advantage and disadvantage in each of the proposals would be considered, including the option of possibly “sitting on the property.”
“Cody and I have weekly meetings with a representative from Kidder Mathews. They’ve been doing tons of work behind the scenes looking at the feasibility of the property, the environmental impacts of the property — what’s buildable and what’s not buildable,” Stancil said. “They’ve been working with the landowners around the 640-acre property to find out interest in building or selling as well, or at least [the city] obtaining right of way through those properties to get to our 640.”
He added city officials have asked Kidder Mathews to explore more in-depth options for consideration. He said the council and the public will continue to be updated as options arise.
“We’re working on some of those right now to flesh them out. Those have to do with the surrounding properties,” Stancil said. “We don’t want to bring it as an option unless we know it’s an absolute viable option for us. We don’t want to celebrate an option and at the end of the day go ‘that’s not going to work. Let’s go to option B.’ We’ve had great conversations with them and meet for at least an hour every week to go over the different complexities of the land as far as moving forward with bringing the best options forward for the council to look at. I feel really optimistic that you’re going to be presented with decisions, maybe some tough decisions — or not. If you don’t want to do anything, you don’t have to do anything. At least there will be options for the city on what is the best option to move forward with this property.”
Stancil added that because the 640 acres are zoned as a master plan, Yelm city councilors will have the “ultimate say” in everything that goes up in development there.
“Kidder Mathews is not going to tell us what goes up there or what could go up there. That will literally be right here,” Stancil said. “Once we decide if we’re going to market the property … before anything ever goes up there, the council will have input and the community will have input as to what the master plan looks like.”
Mayor Joe DePinto reiterated that the decision of development is ultimately left to the council.
“How it lays out, if we want to rezone, that’s up to you. If you want more commercial in there, if that’s your priority, put it out there and that’s what council votes on,” DePinto said. “We’re going to get a lot more public input. This isn’t going to happen tomorrow. This is a long process. We’re not just going to do this overnight and pull a fast one on the public. There will be lots of outreach.”
