Yelm City Council reviews Yelm Municipal Code chapters 9, 10 and 13 at study session

Chris Vaccaro, Yelm building official, led a packed presentation during a Yelm City Council study session on Tuesday, June 2, relating to potential changes in Yelm Municipal Code chapters 9, 10 and 13.

Specifically, the potential changes in those chapters relate to visual nuisances in neighborhoods, safety measures for EV chargers and stormwater facility maintenance by the City of Yelm in place of homeowner associations (HOAs).

Vaccaro told the council that the changes in chapter 9 of Yelm Municipal Code would help the city in residential neighborhoods.

“We’re working on code additions, simple language that keeps garbage, car parts, appliances, things like that, from collecting in front, side and rear yards,” Vaccaro said. “It also helps us maintain tall grass, require people to eliminate the fire hazards associated with that, as well as limiting the amount of derelict vehicles that are parked on a property.”

He said the new restrictions introduced into the code would clearly define those items, whereas the old language was loose. Vaccaro claims the new language “makes it indisputable.”

“A layman person could read it and say, ‘oh, ok. I understand that I can’t have dryers. I can’t have tires,’” Vaccaro said. “Those areas need to be cleared for emergency responder access and for aesthetics, honestly.”

Cody Colt, Yelm Public Services Director, noted with recent annexation, there are a couple of new City of Yelm properties that are “going to be a problem.”

“We wanted to clean up this language to help,” Colt said. “We can already enforce it, but it’s easier to enforce. If there’s vehicles in their backyard, if they have a food truck and three other vehicles that have been there for years, now it will give us the ability to say ‘clean it up, or we will clean it up for you.’”

He added that the city is looking at someone who has four or five cars broken down in their yard and put a bigger limit on the number of cars allowed on each property in order to have some leeway.

Colt noted the City of Yelm will look at satellite photos to determine how long each broken down vehicle has sat on a property.
According to Vaccaro, the changes to chapter 10 would require a quick remote disconnect switch for EV chargers in an effort to increase fire safety.

“If a vehicle is charging and it catches fire, a citizen, even an emergency responder, can cut the power supply to that vehicle and hopefully extinguish the fire,” he said. “We’ve seen situations like this where the person is actually trapped in the vehicle while it’s charging and catches. Having a disconnect, you would help that person escape that vehicle. As the technology changes, our code has to keep up with that technology.”

Councilor Tracey Wood said the federal government would’ve required safety measures for any potential dangers with EV charges a long time ago.

“You’re telling me there’s no requirement for a quick disconnect on EV chargers?” he questioned.

Vaccaro said there’s a disconnect there at the charger, but when there’s noxious fumes coming off of it, it’s dangerous for anyone to be near the fire.

With chapter 13, the proposed changes require a maintenance plan for storm water facilities in the absence of an HOA — giving the city the ability to maintain those issues.

“When an HOA disbands, nobody’s maintaining these,” Vaccaro said. “The grass isn’t getting cut. The weeds aren’t getting dealt with. The riff-raff isn’t being maintained. Inlet pipes are damaged. This would give the city the ability to hire someone or have city-staff clean these up and then bill the homeowners of that subdivision equally, since they equally own these stormwater facilities.”

Councilor Joseph Richardson asked Vaccaro if HOA disbandments are becoming a regular occurrence in Yelm and other surrounding areas. Vaccaro answered, “absolutely,” and noted it’s advantageous to homeowners as city maintenance would not cost more than HOA fees do per month.