Frequenters of downtown Yelm can exhale a sigh of relief when searching for a parking spot, as the Yelm City Council unanimously approved a construction contract with Nisqually Construction to build a new downtown parking lot.
The parking lot will be located behind Yelm City Hall, or where “people park when they eat at The Local,” according to Cody Colt, Yelm’s public services director. The agreement with Nisqually Construction is to not exceed $306,885.41, and funds will come from the city’s road and street construction fund.
“(Nisqually Construction) wanted to work with us so bad that they are just paying their guys. They’re not making any big profit … They’re doing it for as little as they could,” Colt said at the Yelm City Council meeting on April 23. “The plan is that the parking lot will be done in the first week in June. It will be done by Prairie Days. That’s the goal.”
The parking lot will feature two EV chargers, motorcycle parking and disabled parking, according to Colt. It will also include a sidewalk that will connect to the eventual activated alleyway, which Colt expects to be constructed later this year or early next year.
“I think you’ll see the need of the parking lot with how quickly it fills up. People will support how great this was that we’ll be able to allocate money in future budgets to continue to build it up, or to build parking lots in other spots,” Colt said. “That parking lot will be the first place people park when there’s Prairie Days or any events going on in that park. I was looking at that. I understand there’s a couple of businesses, and during tax season there might be another business that uses that parking lot quite a bit. But the overall benefit to everyone in that area is beneficial to the city as a whole.”
Councilor Tracey Wood asked Colt if the construction plan could accommodate potential future growth at the parking lot, such as added levels or stories. Colt said yes, but there’s currently a 15-foot easement due to a satellite dish belonging to the company that took over Consolidated Communications. Colt added the city cannot build over 15 feet due to the easement over the property.
Colt added the parking lot could eventually become an “upward standing parking lot,” but that the city has recently backed off that idea recently as prices to construct underground infrastructure to support multi-storied lots have become more expensive.
“It’s designed in a way so it’s easy to put in and change it to that later on,” Colt said of the current proposed plans.
Wood asked if there was a timeline for the abandonment of the easement.
“I’m not sure when they’ll abandon it,” Colt said. “They mentioned they will, but they haven’t given us a timeline.”
Mayor Joe DePinto seemed confident the city could eventually construct a multi-leveled parking facility.
“It doesn’t mean we won’t get it done,” he said.
Colt noted that Nisqually Construction was the lowest qualified bidder and recently worked with the City of Yelm on the Yelm Community Center’s new stage. Councilor Brian Hess said when Nisqually Construction built the stage, the city had to do a change order to increase funding. He asked Colt if this would happen again.
“We changed the scope of what they were doing with the stage. The parking lot is fully designed. They designed the stage, and we had to change the scope in the middle of the project to make it a lot nicer,” Colt said. “This should be a good number, and they’ve been really great to work with on everything. They’ve been very straightforward on this.”
Councilor Brian Hess asked if city code would have to be adjusted to allow the parking structure, and how that would affect current and future businesses. Colt said code currently allows businesses located in the central business district without enough parking to use the street.
“We’re classifying this as city-owned parking that they’ll be able to use to fill spots. What that will look like in the long term, we don’t know, but we can use this as a permanent area for a place, maybe a food restaurant [that] wants to come in where there hasn’t been a food restaurant and there’s not a lot of parking,” Colt said. “We can now permit it with them knowing this parking lot is within a 300-foot range or a 500-foot range.”
Councilor Joseph Richardson supported the idea of the parking lot, stating one of the things he despises most about visiting cities is when it doesn’t have enough parking spaces.
“This is excellent in my eyes, especially when I think about things like a farmers market,” Richardson said. “It looks like it’s a plus here.”
