The City of Yelm may have to wait a little longer to begin bringing development ideas and designs to Yelm City Council for the 640-acre undeveloped property owned by the city.
Yelm’s City Administrator Todd Stancil told City Council members that the city has encountered several challenges in creating viable access to its 640-acre property. Stancil said that the ownership of the neighboring 610-acre property is run by a board, not just one specific individual, making negotiations for right-of-way more challenging.
“They’re also now getting attention from other developers for their property,” Stancil said. “That’s obviously created challenges for us on our timeline. It might not be the worst thing in the world if other developers choose to pursue their property. It could make ours more valuable as well. … We just don’t have the answers yet on if there’s other buyers that will enter an agreement with the landowners around us. If they do, they have expressed interest in ours as well.”
Stancil added that he’s hopeful for a more affirmative answer in the coming weeks. If a new option is created to present to council, he said Kidder Mathews representatives would present those details during a meeting to explore the pros and cons.
“There’s not a ton of new information to discuss. Cody [Colt] and I still meet weekly, sometimes multiple times a week. There’s lots of various options for our property, in particular the roadway through. Everybody here knows the biggest challenge is the property that neighbors our 640, so we’ve been in a lot of communication with that family to see if we can somehow work with them to put something together, or at a minimum get access through their property to get access to our 640,” Stancil said. “That’s kind of where we are right now. There’s no need or reason to make a decision on that overnight.
“We still feel that there’s some other options coming that are good, that are better than the ones that are on the table. That’s where we are,” Stancil added.
He said, assuming the property owners are taking offers because the city has been recently contacted by developers asking what they could do with the location if acquired. Stancil doesn’t believe there’s a contract in place though.
“We think they’re doing their due diligence to find out that if they were to buy 610 acres, what could they do,” Stancil said. “They didn’t love our timeline that we gave them. They’re looking for something a little bit quicker. I think some of it has to do with the environmental impact studies that were done or would have to be re-done. There’s so many different little complexities about it. When the developer spoke to Cody on Thursday, they asked some questions about it. They probably didn’t get all of the answers they wanted, or the right answers they wanted just because it is zone master planned.”
For the city’s purpose, Stancil said that a master planned community would provide a lot of what the city and taxpayers want, such as parks and other open spaces.
“Just standby on this. We talk to them a few times a week to get the best thing we can for us. It’s coming,” Stancil said.
