Yelm City Council unanimously approves Tahoma Ranch development agreement

All seven Yelm city councilors were in agreement of the proposed development agreement with RJ Development, LLC, for Tahoma Ranch — which would feature six commercial use lots and 228 multifamily units — and passed Resolution 653 in relation to the development during a council meeting on Tuesday, March 25.

The City of Yelm hearing examiner issued site plan approval for the proposed Tahoma Ranch mixed use project on Nov. 6, 2024. The site is located on Tahoma Boulevard, just east of Yelm High School’s Tornado Alley.

According to the Yelm City Council’s agenda packet for the March 25 meeting, the development agreement will provide certainty for both the City of Yelm and the project developer in various aspects. Clayton Wiebe, Yelm’s public services associate planner, said the agreement intends to achieve certainty for the developer on development standards, zoning and environmental law.

“Basically, it states that they are vested to the current standards we have in place now. If we change laws in the future, they won’t be subject to that,” Wiebe said. “The big picture for the city is that we’ll get some assurance that as part of this mixed use development, the developers will build at least two of the six commercial lots, and two of those six commercial lots will have to be fully developed and built out with buildings up and ready for tenants to move in.”

The agenda packet states that two of the six commercial lots will be fully developed, with buildings ready for tenants, prior to final occupancy for the final four residential buildings. Yelm Municipal Code requires that 30% of commercial use is completed prior to residential use being finished.

The agreement will also provide certainty for the developer in relation to environmental and critical areas regulation, as well as the required public infrastructure improvements necessary for site development.

According to Wiebe, through the development agreement, the city is trying to avoid a situation where a developer arrives, builds apartments and “skips town” before giving the city any commercial development. Councilor Joseph Richardson asked Wiebe for clarification regarding the guarantee that two commercial lots will be completed prior to final occupancy for the four residential buildings.

“Yes. Specifically, we’ll get a guarantee that two of those six commercial lots will be fully built out and ready for tenants,” Wiebe said. “The other four of the six commercial lots will come later, but it does give us a guarantee on two of those six at the very beginning.”

Councilor Brian Hess also wanted clarification regarding two of the six commercial use lots being fully completed and developed, and asked if the four other lots will be apartments or if they’d be commercial.

“What you’re talking about is the city withholding the final four certificates of occupancy on four buildings,” Wiebe said. “The proposal includes apartments and townhomes, so we withhold the certificates of occupancy on two apartment buildings and on two of the townhomes. They have to have those two of the six commercial lots ready for tenants.”

Hess also wanted to know if there’s any idea “what they’re looking at” in reference to the commercial space.

“The only reason I ask is because for one of the projects, they decide they’re going to just make it all storage units and that’s all called commercial. That didn’t really help us out with getting retail space for our chamber of commerce and future employers,” Hess said.

In response, Wiebe said nothing is officially locked in as of now for the commercial space, and that preliminary site plans have shown potential for quick service restaurants and retail space to be developed. He added a lot of time has been spent with traffic mitigation on this project and that the developer is “going to go above and beyond” their typical traffic facilities charges.

“They’re going to be paying about $260,000 more than typical, and that’s because it’s a big project. I’m sure they’re mitigating all of their impacts,” Wiebe said. “They’re going to have some extra expense on their end for traffic facilities charges, and they’re also going to be building a pedestrian connection to the high school, right next door.”

The full development agreement between the City of Yelm and RJ Development, LLC, can be viewed, beginning on page 33, at https://tinyurl.com/YelmAgreement1.