Yelm City Council to vote on interlocal agreement with Thurston County regarding annexation

A week ahead of Yelm City Council’s vote on an interlocal agreement with Thurston County regarding annexation, Gary Cooper, Yelm’s planning and building manager, presented during a study session on Tuesday, Dec. 2, to discuss exactly what the council voted for on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

According to Cooper, Yelm City Council adopted a resolution in July of 2024 to enter an interlocal agreement with Thurston County. Due to Thurston County’s schedule, Cooper said the county wasn’t able to get to it until September of this year.

“That’s why it’s taken so long. This is the actual interlocal agreement that we’re going to be bringing to you next week to get your approval to have the mayor sign. It doesn’t require an ordinance or resolution or anything. We’ve already done that,” Cooper said. “If you really look at it, what it really does is lay out what the rules and responsibilities would be between the city and county if, at a later date, the council decides to annex the area. If you look at the agreement, most of the responsibilities fall on the county. What would happen if you do annex, they would provide us with all of the asbuilts for roads and bridges in the area. They would provide us with any information about if there are any open permits out there that they’re processing.

“I don’t anticipate there’s going to be a whole lot. These are all one-to-five acre parcels. I don’t see us taking on a bunch of responsibility there,” Cooper continued. “If the county has any SIPA mitigation fees, those are mitigation fees they could collect on developments, those would come to the city. Basically, they’re going to give us the property records, the infrastructure records and everything else.”

Cooper also specified that the method the City of Yelm and Thurston County is using for annexation is known as the interlocal agreement. Once an interlocal agreement is approved, Cooper clarified that it doesn’t mean anything has been annexed quite yet.

“We go to the council with an ordinance, asking for your approval to annex the properties. If you guys do approve this interlocal agreement, the very next day they’re going to go live with a website that has information about the proposal,” Cooper said. “We’ll have a place for people to sign up so they can get automatic email notifications for the future hearing.”

He added an open house is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 on Tuesday, Dec. 23, at the Yelm Community Center to discuss the proposal.

“Tenatively, we’ll be coming to council on Jan. 16 with an ordinance to seek the annexation,” Cooper said. “If, at that time, you do approve the ordinance, then it’s another 45 days that has to go to the boundary review board for a comment period. If we don’t get any comments, after 45 days it would become effective.”

He said that roughly 1,200 acres and 320 parcels are being looked at for annexation. If those properties are annexed, the property owners would still receive the same emergency response, the same garbage service, and specified they wouldn’t have to connect to sewer and water unless there’s a failed system and they’re within 200-feet of a sewer line.

Additionally, Cooper claimed that property taxes “typically” go down after annexation because of the Thurston County road tax.

“Right now, based on the county’s road tax, they will likely go up about $10 a month with annexation,” Cooper said. “I hate to say it’s minor to anyone else’s pocketbook, but it’s not a whole lot of difference in terms of property tax.”

Additionally, Cooper said every property owner facing annexation will receive a three-page document if Yelm City Council approves the interlocal agreement.

“We’re trying to get as much information out as we can before the open house so they already are informed about what will and what won’t happen,” he said.