Letter to Schools re deferral
City of Yelm
Community Development Department
105 Yelm Avenue West
P.O. Box 479
Yelm, WA 98597
February 8, 2007
Erling Birkland, Director of Construction and Facilities
Yelm Community Schools
P.O. Box 476
Yelm, WA 98597-0476
Dear Rocky:
This letter is regarding your letter received January 17, 2007, requesting a deferral of improvements that would typically be required for new construction and expansion.
Specifically, for the Districts proposed expansion of Fort Stevens elementary, you are requesting deferral of frontage improvements and the requirement to connect to the City’s sewer
system for 10 years.
First, deferral requests are processed at the time of and together with a land use permit application, as other City Departments, State and other local agencies, and the public often
have comments regarding the deferral of required improvements. A deferral is approved or denied as part of the conditions of approval of the land use permit and may be appealed as part
of the underlying land use decision.
Based on this, the Community Development Department can’t advise you on the ultimate decision on your request, as a land use approval has not even been filed yet. However, I have discussed
your request with my staff and I feel that we could support a requested deferral for frontage improvements, and the Districts improvements would be isolated from other street improvements
along 100th way and there is a public benefit in coordinating small improvements with a larger project. A deferral, if approved, would not be written for a specific time period, but
would be ‘called in’ upon a larger road improvement which could be at any time within the 10 years you request.
I don’t feel that the same type of public benefit exists with the connection to the City’s sewer system, and would not support a deferral of connection requirements.
I hope that this information helps in your planning processes, and if you have any questions, please give me a call.
Sincerely,
Grant Beck, Director
Department of Community Development