Colt says 7,500 new units will be planned and accommodated for under 20-year comp plan

It’s no secret that growth is set to come to Yelm over the next 20 years, and during a joint meeting between the City of Yelm and Yelm Community Schools (YCS) on Tuesday, May, 5, public services director Cody Colt highlighted some of the development that is projected to occur.

Specifically, Colt spoke about Yelm’s 2025-2045 comprehensive plan, and highlighted that several bills have factored into the experienced growth in the city.

“We’re growing extremely fast,” Colt said. “There are three main bills that deal with growth in the city that were passed by the state. The most important is House Bill 1220. House Bill 1220 required us to plan and accommodate for housing in Yelm. This directly influenced our comp plan to allow for growth of up to 7,500 new units. That’s our housing units. They can be apartments, they can be homes, they can be duplexes — but 7,500 units. That’s a state mandate that came out.”

The public works told the Nisqually Valley News on Monday, May 11, though 7,500 units are planned and accommodated for throughout the next 20 years, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Yelm will experience that much construction. He claimed Yelm is currently seeing about 100 to 200 dwelling units per-year currently.

Colt added that some Yelm natives miss when Yelm was a smaller town and that some residents do not want to see the city grow. He reiterated that the state of Washington mandated that the city accommodates and plans for growth over the next 20 years.

“The first part you’re seeing to that is the annexation we just had recently, as well as a massive amount of development coming into Yelm,” Colt said. “The GMA, which is the growth management act, requires us to also plan for and accommodate growth and increasing density so we prevent what’s called urban sprawl.”

If Yelm doesn’t comply with these state-mandated changes, Colt claimed the state would withhold tax funding, grant revenue and other revenue. The loss of that funding would put the city into a “big bind.”

Colt also highlighted some of Yelm’s population growth in recent years. According to the public works director, the city had 9,400 residents in 2019 — but currently sits with 12,195 residents after the recent annexation was completed.

He also pointed to recent data provided from the school district that points to a 1% decrease in student population in that same timeframe.

“I can’t say that you’re going to continue to decrease when we’re increasing the population of Yelm by 10,000 people,” Colt said. “Just for the sake of what the current projections are for school growth, which is a decrease of 1% per year and they’ve been seeing it since COVID. This creates an interesting conundrum. The Yelm population is growing 5% — we’d think that the schools are going to grow at the same rate.”

Colt also pointed out that school funding is based on a per-student revenue. Though Yelm might build an additional 1,000 homes and collect property tax, the school district won’t see any of that revenue unless there are students from these new homes directly enrolled within YCS.

According to Colt, the city’s population is only going to continue to grow throughout the next decade. He claimed there’s about 1,600 homes “in the pipeline” to be built over the next five to 10 years, and that the number is only going to grow as families continue to move into the city.

The public works director also highlighted impact fees, and stated that every time a constructor builds a single-family home in Yelm they pay impact fees for schools, traffic, water, sewer and fire.

“The school has $3 million in impact fees, but that money can only be used for growth. They can’t use it to remodel the gym. They can’t use it to fix a roof. They can’t use it to refloor,” Colt said. “This money can’t be used for anything aside from growth projects.”

He added that this becomes an interesting issue for the school board to navigate through as they have money they can’t touch until they grow — but they’re also not growing to be able to use those funds.

In the City of Yelm’s 2025-2045 comprehensive plan, page 21 specifies that the housing element of the plan is the guiding document that Yelm will use to plan future housing needs. It also evaluates existing housing availability, predicts the housing needs through the next 20 years and establishes goals and procedures to accommodate the upcoming housing demand growth.

In 2021, the Washington state Legislature added several requirements into the GMA, including the adopting of House Bill 1220 — which required jurisdictions to “plan for and accommodate housing that is affordable to all economic segments of the population.”

It also highlights several current housing challenges faced in Yelm, including the region’s military background and broad range of “unique housing needs and challenges” that often stem from the city’s military personnel economy and demographics.

Additionally, housing costs in Yelm have continued to rise and the comprehensive plan cites that prices are not attainable for a steadily growing population.

Additionally, Yelm’s population is expected to be more than doubled in 2045.