Though the pothole once dubbed the “Historic Yelm Canyon,” near Burger King and the Nisqually Plaza Commercial Center off of East Yelm Avenue, was filled in March, its legacy was a topic of discussion during the Yelm City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Councilors brought up the oversized pothole during the meeting as they discussed creating a new chapter in Yelm’s Municipal Code to declare potholes a nuisance. The creation of this chapter would pave the way for the City Council to find solutions regarding potholes at various locations throughout Yelm.
“We wouldn’t bring a personal driveway that has a pothole to you as a nuisance. I’d imagine if someone did, you’d say no — that’s not a nuisance,” Yelm Public Works Director Cody Colt said. “This is purely giving us the ability to enforce what people wish we could’ve enforced last time.”
He said this would provide the City of Yelm a tool to enforce future pothole-related issues in situations that couldn’t be resolved in the past. Colt added that all appeals regarding pothole violations and fines would be conducted through the hearing examiner, and that if someone appeals the case and wins, all fines would be dismissed.
“In most times, a hearing examiner will at least waive fines when it comes to that,” Colt said. “I’d have to check the first violation, second violation and third violation language and make sure that is what it is. It should be you’re getting billed the amount it costs [to repair the pothole].”
Councilor Tracey Wood asked Colt if there were any particular properties that motivated the potential addition of this chapter, to which Colt replied the “Historic Yelm Canyon.”
Wood said that drivers use that strip of road between Burger King and a strip of businesses as a connector to get from 103rd Avenue Northeast to East Yelm Avenue. He believes that’s the primary reason there’s been issues with potholes at the “Historic Yelm Canyon” location.
“It’s a penalty itself having a pothole as a business,” Wood said. “People are going to stay away from your business because, after a while, they know you have a pothole … It only behooves the property owner to fix those potholes, or in a lot of cases, the business owner.”
Colt noted that the nuisance would be cited against the property owner, not the business owner.
Wood also asked Colt why the City of Yelm hasn’t looked at creating a road through that location to connect 103rd Avenue Northeast to East Yelm Avenue.
“Two issues are addressed. One is I think you’re right. If people see it’s a bad place, they won’t go there. The issue is that a business has an ailment to multiple businesses. Even though they’re affecting their business, they’re also affecting businesses near them. They’re suffering now because people won’t fix their pothole,” Colt said. “The road aspect is that it’s privately owned, and it’s very similar to another private road we have that was shut down. Could you turn it into a public road? There’d have to be a lot of steps to get it up to standards to turn it to a public road. But could it be? Probably. Do those businesses want to bring it to those standards to turn it to a public road and turn it to the city?”
Colt added that it may not be fair to taxpayers to upgrade a public road that only works for a couple of business entities. Wood said a big chunk of the community uses that strip of roadway, despite it being privately owned. He added that the city is specifically creating an ordinance to address something that isn’t happening throughout the community.
“This isn’t an issue we’re having in a big majority of our parking lots, in our business lots. We’re having it, as we know, in one specific area. It’s not due to necessarily lack of maintenance. It’s due to high-volume usage,” Wood said. “I think that we’re putting the pressure on these property owners to deal with a situation that’s created because the city doesn’t have a road through there.”
In reference to the road near the “Historic Yelm Canyon,” Councilor Brian Hess said a road already is in place in the Nisqually Plaza parking lot that can connect drivers to East Yelm Avenue.
“I understand what you’re saying, but there’s not even a full-size block between those two [roads]. In addition, if you understand traffic laws, technically you’re not supposed to cut through a parking lot to get from one point to another,” Hess said.
Mayor Joe DePinto said that the new chapter isn’t structured just around the “Historic Yelm Canyon” property, but it would give the city the ability to do something in the future if more potholes develop in the city. He added that the “Historic Yelm Canyon” was the most visible pothole location, but other areas throughout Yelm face similar issues.
Councilor Trevor Palmer stated that Colt does a great job “with the funding he has” but noted some streets are failing in Yelm. He said he didn’t agree with fining property owners for potholes when the city has its own road issues to address.
“The second street that I live on is crumbling off into the ditches,” Palmer said. “How can we go after private business owners for their one pothole when we have a ton of infrastructure that needs a lot of maintenance, a lot of upgrading — and we’re going to go after these people, the citizens?”
DePinto reiterated that issuing of fines would be at the council’s discretion and that they’ll discuss the matter again at the council’s next meeting.
