Yelm City Council approves two of four proposed amendments to municipal code

During a Yelm City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 28, Yelm City Councilors approved two of the four proposed amendments to the Yelm Municipal Code — opting to postpone the decision of one of the items and failing another.

The first of two amendments approved in the Yelm Municipal Code was ordinance no. 1147, which addressed non-commercial nuisances.
According to Chris Vaccaro, Yelm building official and code enforcement officer, the amendment to ordinance no. 1147 adds simple, plain language and clearly illustrates to home owners what the minimum code requirements are for property maintenance.

“It addresses lawn upkeep, reducing fire hazards, eliminating obstructions for emergency personnel, the collecting of tires, garbage, appliances in the front and sideyards of the property,” Vaccaro said.

Councilor Tracey Wood asked Vaccaro for clarification — pondering if these nuisances would come to council before any action was taken on them?

Vaccaro told the councilor that if the city was to deem a public property as a nuisance, it would come before council.

“But a notice of violation letter that would go out to a property owner, if we get a complaint about a property, we go out and examine it,” Vaccaro said. “If it’s unhealthy or unsafe, or a detriment to the town as a whole, we’ll begin the enforcement process. A notice of violation will go out. We’ll give a reasonable timeframe to clean up the property and update the violations.”

He added that the last resort would be issuing fines to the property owner or having the property abated.

Wood also asked Vaccaro if there’s any language in the municipal code that references items inside of the buildings and what kinds of materials can be kept under those circumstances?

According to Vaccaro, the update to the municipal code would address placing, depositing, keeping, having or leaving items in any private land, building, structure or premise – which includes structures like sheds and garages. It also addresses if there’s any rancid garbage or animal carcasas.

“We’re not going to go around kicking people’s doors in, but if we get a report and we find there’s a violation, we will address it,” Vaccaro said.

Councilor David Johnstone told Vaccaro that since this covers non-commercial nuisances, there needs to be an added statute that covers commercial nuisances. Vaccaro claimed there already is existing code that covers commercial properties — adding there’s a lot of international building code to lean on, as well.

“A lot of things the health department handles. The fire marshal at Southeast Thurston Fire Authority will handle those as well,” Vaccaro said. “We’re just focusing on the residential portion because most of the code enforcement we do is residential. Most of it is homeowners.”

Yelm City Council unanimously approved ordinance no. 1147.

The final amendment to the Yelm Municipal Code approved by Yelm City Council was ordinance no. 1154, which addresses development code amendments.

According to Andew Kohler, City of Yelm associate planner, the amendment establishes design standards for unit lot subdivisions and accessory dwelling units. It also revises residential setback, density, subdivisions, street access requirements and modifies minimum lot area requirements in C3 zoning.

The amendment also removes obsolete single family residential standards from the central business district and authorizes an administrative review of the final subdivision applicants.

Additionally, Kohler said Yelm Planning Commission considered proposed amendments during a public hearing on Tuesday, June 16, and recommended the adoption.

This item was also unanimously approved by Yelm City Councilors.

Yelm City Councilors opted to postpone the vote on ordinance no. 1149, which covered the addition of chapter 10.21 about electric vehicle charging stations.

Before the decision, Vaccaro said Yelm Municipal Code is trying to keep up with technology as it continues to evolve

“Unfortunately, technology’s advancing a lot faster than code development,” Vaccaro said. “What we’re going for here is having a remote disconnect for electric vehicle stations. There have been instances where people are sitting in their car, while it’s charging, and it caught fire. Having a switch like you see at a gas station could kill the power supply to that.”

He noted the switch would be 20 to 40 feet away from the charging station, which gives first responders “ample room” to address the emergency.

Johnstone told Vaccaro that he has a few issues with the proposed amendment. He asked Vaccaro why the City of Yelm isn’t just relying on the National Electric Code in regards to disconnects with EV chargers.

Vaccaro claimed they’re not always fail-safe, and that citizens can sometimes tamper with panels and subpanels — which isn’t always identified correctly.

“This is just one more measure that guarantees this goes to that appliance,” Vaccaro said. “This will shut that off immediately. There’s no confusion about it. It will also be clearly labeled.”

Vaccaro added that there’s nothing in the NEC that covers this topic at the moment, leading to Johnstone asking him which version he’s looked at? Vaccaro told Johnstone the 2017 edition, and Johnstone noted that Washington state uses the 2023 edition.

Additionally, Johnstone claimed on Dec. 31, the 2026 edition goes into effect and will address these issues in great detail.

Johnstone also proposed to postpone the vote on ordinance no. 1149 until it’s been brought back to the council for further discussion during a study session meeting. Yelm City Councilors unanimously agreed to postpone the vote.

Lastly, Yelm City Council voted 5-2 to fail ordinance no. 1150, which amends Yelm Municipal Code to include maintenance requirements for stormwater facility maintenance.

According to Vaccaro, these amendments look at establishing code for subdivisions and neighborhoods where there’s no active HOA in place, and in that instance, nobody maintaining stormwater facilities.

“At that point, the city would either offer the homeowners to elect somebody to take care of it or the city would have to hire a third party and each homeowner, individually and equally, (is responsible) for the cost of maintaining the stormwater pond,” Vaccaro said.

Johnstone told Vaccaro, yet again, that there’s several issues he has with the proposed amendment. The councilor claims there’s no definition behind “absence of HOA.” He believes it could mean several different things, such as the HOA isn’t meeting, the corporation is in bad standing or dissolved, or it was disbanded and got rid of the covenants.

“Those aren’t legally equal scenarios,” Johnstone said. “I’m not aware of any legal provision that would actually give the city authority to charge homeowners. There is a corporation in place with liability insurance and protections, just like any corporation. How would the city charge a homeowner?”

According to Vaccaro, an active HOA is defined as an HOA that meets on a regular basis, collects dues and fees, and does maintenance agreed upon in the stormwater agreement when land use approval was given.

Johnstone doesn’t see any need for this extra piece of code when there’s already agreements in place on the specification or scenario to deal with this.

“What I’m seeing is all the stormwater ponds that aren’t being maintained,” Vaccaro said. “If you would like to see an amendment to that language, I’m more than onboard with that.”

Gary Cooper Yelm planning and building manager, says the intent of the language was specifically for HOAs that have disbanded and have stormwater maintenance requirements, but because they’ve disbanded, there isn’t an HOA to “go after.”

“If the language isn’t clear enough to make that obvious to what we’re trying to do, we could change the language,” Cooper said. “It’s not about inactive homeowners associations because we would just go to the homeowners association.”

He added that they have the authority to do it and have the authority to establish the mechanism for enforcement.

Johnstone disagrees, stating he doesn’t think the city has the authority to charge a homeowner through an HOA. Vaccaro responded, saying the city wouldn’t be issuing this through an HOA.

Cody Colt, Yelm public works director, noted the maintenance agreement specifically states “HOA or its heirs.” He claimed the homeowners would become the heirs if an HOA disbands.

Councilors Griselda Arias and Terry Kaminski were the only yes votes on the amendment, while councilors Wood, Richardson, Johnstone, Stephanie Kangiser and Brian Hess each voted no.