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PL CV 092706NP&RAILWAY City of Yelm Community Development Department 105 Yelm Avenue West P.O. Box 479 Yelm, WA 98597   Pre-Application Meeting September 27, 2006 These comments are preliminary in nature and are not intended to represent final comments and or requirements for the City of Yelm. Until a complete application is made, the Community Development Department can only attempt to inform the applicant of general requirements as they appear in the form presented by the applicant at the time of pre-submission. Proponent: Nathaniel Stewart Project Proposal: Annex 3.74 Acres within the Yelm Urban Growth Area into the City of Yelm and construct a Biodiesel Production Facility Project Location: Between NP & Railway, along Canal Road Tax parcel number 84300700100 Annexation The property is currently outside the corporate limits of the City of Yelm, but is within Yelm’s Urban Growth Area. The property is currently zoned light industrial by Thurston County and is pre-zoned Industrial by the Yelm Comprehensive Plan. The City’s current Water and Sewer Comprehensive Plans prohibit the extension of urban services outside the City limits. The City’s Water Comprehensive Plan establishes an Interim Water Service Policy which states “Annexation of properties in the future water service area will only be allowed for parcels within an existing sewer LID area or parcels that provide at least enough water rights to the City to allow service of the property seeking annexation.” Annexation into the City is a City Council Decision. The Council bases its decision on not only the benefit to the City, but also the projects impact to the City. An annexation area must be adjacent to the existing City limits and must create a logical new City boundary. The annexation process includes the following steps: 1. A petition for annexation with the boundaries of the proposed annexation area is presented to the City by the proponent. 2. Staff reviews the proposal and makes a recommendation to allow, or not allow annexation, based on the policies of the Comprehensive Plan and the joint plan with Thurston County, including: The impact of additional roads brought into the City’s system. Availability of adequate water and sewer capacity. The boundaries of the annexation as it relates to ease of service delivery. The Water System Comprehensive Plan requires that any area annexed into the City provide sufficient water rights to offset the impacts of the development. In order to transfer water rights, the petitioner must present the City with the water rights certificate and information showing beneficial use within the previous five years. If, in the City’s opinion, the information appears sufficient that Ecology would approve a water rights transfer, the application will be submitted to Ecology and the annexation petition will be processed concurrently. 3. The City Council reviews the petition and takes action to allow the annexation to proceed as submitted, to allow it to proceed with different boundaries, or to not allow the annexation. 4. If allowed to proceed, the petitioner must gather the signatures of at least 50% of the owners of the gross land area of the proposed annexation area along with the signatures of 50% of the registered voters or at least 60% of the owners based on land value within the proposed annexation area. 5. Once the signatures are presented to the City, the petition is submitted to Thurston County for certification of the signatures and to the Boundary Review Board for approval. 6. If approved by the Boundary Review Board, staff prepares a report to the City Council to finalize the annexation, which completed by the Council at a public hearing. The entire annexation process may take up to six months, assuming that signatures are collected in a timely fashion. The requirement that annexations not be approved unless water rights sufficient to serve the development are included in the application is a policy that was adopted by the City Council as part of the Water Comprehensive Plan. City staff would not recommend that the Council amend its policy unless there were significant advantages to the public interest in having a parcel annexed. Zoning and Setbacks Assuming the property is annexed into the City, the property would be zoned Industrial (I), which lists gas and petroleum processing or distribution as an allowed use. A site plan review approval would be required for the development of the property and all standards found in the Zoning Code and Development Guidelines would have to be met. . Building setbacks are 15 feet from the front, 15 feet from the rear and 15 feet from the side property lines The maximum building height is forty (40) feet. Critical Areas All of Yelm is considered a critical aquifer recharge area. Existing development regulations address the potential impacts to this critical area. The City wetland maps indicate that the property is located outside of wetlands, flood zones, and high ground water areas buffer areas. Site Plan Review Process A Site Plan Review application as established by Chapter 17.84 YMC is an administrative review process. The minimum application requirements can be found at Section 17.84.060 YMC and are listed on the application form. A notice of application is mailed to all property owners within 300 feet of the site. The site plan review committee’s decision on a site plan review application may be appealed to the Hearing Examiner, who would hold an open record hearing on the issue. The Examiner’s decision can be appealed to the City Council, which would hold a closed record hearing and determine if the decision was supported by substantial evidence or contrary to law. If a SEPA appeal is filed, the site plan review would be combined with that appeal and the Hearing Examiner would become the decision maker with a recommendation from the SPR Committee. An open record hearing would be held by the examiner on the site plan review application, if combined with a SEPA appeal. A conceptual landscaping plan is required with the application for site plan review. The final landscaping and irrigation plan is required as an element of civil plans, with installation and approval prior to occupancy of the business. Land use approval typically contains conditions of approval that the applicant must complete prior to receiving a building permit. Upon satisfactory completion of all conditions of land use approval, the applicant can submit building plans for approval. State Environmental Policy Act Process A SEPA threshold determination will be required before action is taken on the Site Plan Review application. Because of the nature of the project, an expanded environmental checklist will be required initially. The expanded checklist should include the following environmental documents: Preliminary Stormwater Plan. The SEPA threshold determination is appealable to the Hearings Examiner, who would hold an open record hearing on the issue. The Examiner’s decision may be appealed to City Council, which would conduct a closed record hearing and determine if the Examiner’s decision was contrary to law and supported by substantial evidence. Land Use Fees Industrial site plan review = $350.00 + $150.00 per acre Sepa = $150.00 Design Review 1. Refuse container screening shall be required and be of a material and design compatible with the overall architectural theme of the associated structure, shall be at least as high as the refuse container, and shall in no case be less than six feet high. 2. No refuse container shall be permitted between a street and the front of a building. 3. Refuse collection areas shall be designed to contain all refuse generated on-site and deposited between collections. Deposited refuse shall not be visible from outside the refuse enclosure. Parking Lot Location and Design The requirements for off-street parking and their design shall be regarded as the minimum; however, the owner, developer, or operator of the premises for which the parking facilities are intended shall be responsible for providing adequate amounts and arrangement of space for the particular premises even though such space is in excess of the minimum set forth. Chapter 17.72 Industrial uses require one space per employee based on the greatest number of employees on a single shift, plus one square foot parking per square foot of display or retail area, plus one space for each vehicle owned, leased or operated by the company. Yelm Development Guidelines 4G.110 states; “in all commercial and industrial developments, parking areas shall be so arranged as to make it unnecessary for a vehicle to back out into any street or public right-of-way. A standard stall is 9 feet by 20 feet while a compact stall is 8 by 16. A loading space must accommodate a truck 45 feet in length, 12 feet in width, and 14 feet tall. All parking areas must be surfaced with asphalt or concrete, and shall be striped and landscaped to the standards of the development guidelines. Landscaping Types and Description The purpose of landscaping requirements is to preserve the aesthetic character of communities; to promote retention and protection of existing vegetation; and to reduce the impacts of development on drainage systems and natural habitats. Type II landscaping is intended to provide visual separation of uses from streets, and visual separation of compatible uses so as to soften the appearance of streets, parking areas and building elevation. It is used around the perimeter of a site with a minimum planting area of eight-feet in width. When used adjacent to a building, a minimum five-foot planting area shall be provided. Type II landscaping will be required around the perimeter of the site. Type III landscaping is intended to provide visual relief where clear sight is desired. This type is utilized along pedestrian corridors and walks for separation of pedestrians from streets and parking areas. The minimum width for Type III landscaping shall be six-feet, a four-foot width may be used through parking area pedestrian walks where accent trees are used. Type IV landscaping is intended to provide visual relief and shade in parking areas. Parking shall have at least 24 square feet of landscape development for each parking stall proposed. Each area of landscaping must contain at least 100 square feet of area and must be at least six feet in any direction. Type V landscaping is to provide visual relief in storm water retention/detention areas with vegetation that is suitable and will thrive in hydric soils. Transportation Ingress and egress at the site shall be consistent with the Yelm Development Guidelines, Section 4B.140. A traffic impact analysis is required when a project creates more than 20 new trips into the city’s transportation system. The City of Yelm has adopted a Transportation Facility Charge (TFC) of $750.00 per PM peak trip generated by new development. The code provides a default table that the applicant can use to determine the number of new PM trips generated by a proposal. The TFC charges are based on the type of use proposed. Industrial/Manufacturing creates .98 trips per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area. Example: .98 x 5,000 = 4,900/ 1,000 = 4.9 x $750.00 = $3,675.00 Traffic Facilities Charges may be applied to off-site improvements required to mitigate potential significant impacts attributed to the proposed development if the required improvements are capacity related. Frontage improvements are required for all new development within the city. At the completion of the SR 510 Yelm Loop, Canal Road will most likely be classified as a collector street. Railway Street is classified as a neighborhood collector, and NP Road is a commercial collector. Frontage requirements include improvements to the roadway from the centerline of right-of-way back towards your property. Additional right-of-way dedication may be required. Water The site is currently not connected to the City of Yelm water system. There is an existing water main located at the corner of NP and Canal Road. A loop system connection at Railway and Middle Road may be required fire flow purposes. This project will connect to the existing water main and extend the water system on your site as needed to support your intended uses. Commercial water connections are based on a consumption rate of 900 cubic feet a month and are charged at a rate of $1,500 per connection (fee subject to change) inside the city limits. An engineers estimate for water usage will be required as part of the civil plan submission. Water connection fees are payable at building permit issuance. An irrigation meter shall be installed, provided an approved backflow prevention device is provided. As sewer use fees are calculated based on water usage, an irrigation meter will lower monthly sewer bills. All commercial buildings and irrigation systems are required to provide for cross-connection control through the provisions of a back flow prevention device installed on the water services. A list of approved devices can be found at Chapter 246-290-490 WAC. Sewer The proposed site is currently not connected to the City of Yelm’s STEP sewer system. There is an existing 6” sewer force main located at the corner of Railway and Middle Road. This project will connect to the existing sewer main and extend the step sewer system on your site as needed to support your intended uses. This project will be required to install a City of Yelm STEP sewer tank(s) assembly. Also a grease interceptor will be required before the STEP tank in uses the City deems necessary. The size of both the STEP tank and grease interceptor will be based on peak flows as calculated by the developer’s engineer, which must be submitted as part of the civil plan review. Commercial sewer connections are based on a consumption rate of 900 cubic feet a month and are charged at a rate of $5,569.00 per a connection (fee subject to change) inside city limits. An inspection fee of $145.00 per a connection will also be required. Reclaimed Water System The City of Yelm has a reclaimed water system used for irrigation and non-consumable water uses. The reclaimed water system is located at the intersection of N.P Road and Rhoton Road. This project would be required to utilize this system. This system has a much-reduced fee for water. The reclaimed water fee is charged at a flat rate of $0.92 per 100 cubic feet of water use. The domestic water fee is much higher. Fire Protection All projects need to have fire protection for the buildings. It is likely that fire flow may be an issue at this location, which will be addressed through building official review of the proposed building uses and construction material used for the buildings. Stormwater Developments with additional impervious surface are required to provide stormwater facilities pursuant to the 1992 DOE Stormwater Manual. The size and design would be reviewed as part of the site plan review and further review at civil plan submittal. An operations and maintenance agreement will be required. ADA Requirements The American Disabilities Act required that facilities are ADA accessible. Facility improvements will have to meet current code. Review of these improvements will be determined upon further review of the civil and architectural plans. Civil Plan Review Process Civil Plan review generally takes place after a land use approval. The Yelm Development Guidelines contain standard details for all infrastructure requirements, including parking lot layout, sewer and water lines, STEP tank design, and stormwater control. Building Permit Process Building Plan review, permitting and inspections will be based on Title 15 Yelm Municipal Code, adopting the 2003 IBC, IMC, UPC, IFC and the 2001 Washington State Energy Code. By resolution, the City of Yelm re-adopted the 1997 UBC, UMC and UPC Fee schedules. Building Plans may be submitted after Site Plan Review approval. Five(5) sets of plans, one of which may be half scale, two (2) sets of engineering calculations, energy calculations and specifications will be required. Due to the size of the occupancy, an integrated sprinkler and fire alarm system will be required. These plans may be submitted at a later date along with any required kitchen suppression systems. All fire related items 5’ outside the building will be subject to civil review along with domestic water, waste, and storm water. Concurrently with Site Plan Review two sets of building and accessory building elevations must be submitted for review of the building for consistency with the Design Guidelines. Allow at least 4 to 6 weeks for Building Plan Review and 2 weeks for design guideline review.