City of Yelm and Blue Fern Development working towards development agreement

During the City of Yelm’s most recent city council study session meeting on Tuesday, July 7, Todd Stancil, Yelm city administrator, claimed that the city is working on finalizing language in an ordinance to create a community revitalization funding (CRF) district in relation to Blue Fern Development’s planned 640-acre community.

Additionally, Stancil said that the City of Yelm and Blue Fern Development are still working towards a development agreement, however, he provided no specific timeline on when that contract could be finalized.

“We didn’t want to do too much with the development agreement until we knew we had a clear path in the creation of the ordinance with the CRF,” Stancil said. “We had our first meeting today, officially, with Southeast Thurston Fire. They do have to participate in this CRF, which the majority of fire districts get their money from property taxes so their impacts are different than us, for example. We met with them today with our consultant, answered a lot of their questions and gave them a lot of information.”

Stancil added that the City of Yelm feels optimistic that this is something Southeast Thurston Fire Authority (SETFA) would want to participate in. He noted that SETFA understands without their participation, the CRF won’t get created.

Stancil claimed that he expects to hear SETFA’s decision in late August or early September.

In the meantime, Stancil said Yelm is finalizing language in the ordinance, and once that’s complete, the ordinance itself will go to the City of Yelm’s bond attorney for authorization.

“Even though it’s not a bond directly through the city, it is a bond we’re participating in. Our bond attorney has to agree and sign off on that language,” Stancil said. “While that’s happening, we are going to send our draft back to Blue Fern on the development agreement. They sent us their agreement in May. We’re going to submit all of our revisions and suggestions by the middle of next week.”

Stancil added that the development agreement with Blue Fern Development is a significant document that will serve as a guiding principle to how the master planned community is fleshed out.

Additionally, Stancil said the next item that would come to council in relation to the 640-acre development would either be the development agreement or the ordinance. He noted that the ordinance cannot be brought forward to council until SETFA has signed on as a participant.

“We’re going to keep working on the development agreement, which will be several back and forth on how that’s going to look,” Stancil said. “I wish I had a better timeline on when it will come to you. This whole process is very labor intensive and there’s a lot of moving parts to make this happen. We’re just trying to tie them all together. If we do come to you with an ordinance and development agreement, know that we’ll have a couple thousand hours invested in that document to get here.”

Stancil added that this process of assisting in the planning of a master planned community has been a good learning experience. He said the City of Yelm representatives learn something new every day as they continue to dive into this project.

He also said that the hiring of Bob Stowe, with Stowe Development and Strategies, has been a tremendous asset in the ordinance creation and development agreement creation.

“Money well spent,” Stancil said. “Thank you council for letting him come and be part of this project.”

Councilor Terry Kaminski asked Stancil specifically what’s in the development agreement. Stancil told her that the agreement spells everything out, designates how zonings will be done, how items can be processed — and who’s authorized to make any changes.

“Their proposal basically let me change about anything without you folks,” Stancil said. “Obviously that’s not the process we have here, nor will that be what we submit back to them. It’s a lot of little administrative procedural things like that.”

Stancil specified that Cody Colt’s team at Yelm Public Works has been “much more involved” on the detail side of the agreement.

“The master plan conceptual will come to council as well, but that can’t come to council until we have the development agreement done,” Stancil said. “There’s the ordinance, the conceptual, the development agreement that all have to be simultaneously worked on and fleshed out at the same time. It will come in a wave. There’s a lot behind the scenes and bam, it will come to council.”

Stancil added that there’s nothing, currently, that his team would feel good about bringing to council right now. He said he doesn’t want to bring the ordinance or agreement forward to council until his team feels like it’s close to being what the council would want to see.