Wiltsie Public Records Request 2
City of Yelm
Community Development Department
105 Yelm Avenue West
P.O. Box 479
Yelm, WA 98597
August 25, 2006
Edward A. Wiltsie
P.O. Box 7102
Olympia, WA 98507
Dear Mr. Wiltsie:
The City of Yelm has received an email from you which attempts to clarify two public disclosure requests from you relating to ‘permits granted’ for Tahoma Terra and Thurston Highlands.
Specifically, the initial records requests were:
‘copies of all permits granted for the Tahoma Terra Subdivision Phases I, II, and III’
‘copies of all permits granted for the Thurston Highlands Development Project area’
As neither request identifies a specific record for disclosure, I responded with a letter dated August 21, 2006, which responded to the request and made the following assumptions as
to the intent of your request:
‘Permits’ are project permits as defined by Section 15.49.050 YMC and includes any land use or environmental permit or license including binding site plans, building permits, critical
area approvals, subdivisions, master plans, planned unit developments, shoreline substantial development permits, site plan review, and special uses.
‘Tahoma Terra subdivision phases I, II, and III’ means all records relating to the property encompassed by the Tahoma Terra Master Planned Community, which includes preliminary and conceptual
master plan approval and the subsequent subdivision of land and issuance of building permits.
‘Granted’ means project permits that have been issued or approved pursuant to the appropriate provisions of the Yelm Municipal Code.
The request is for a copy of the entire project file of each record that satisfy’s your criteria.
Your clarification email sent August 22, 2006, stated:
“copies of the permit forms for the permits applied for, not the supporting documents.”
“the permits granted, I believe will show the scope of work permitted and conditions for the work to be performed on 1 to 3 pages maximum per permit.”
“I am more interested in the grading, right of way encroachment and utility construction permits …”
I would note that your request is internally inconsistent in that twice you have requested copies of ‘permits granted’ but also refer to ‘permits applied for’. I assume that your initial
request is accurate and that you are requesting copies of approved permits. I also note that your assumption that approvals will be three pages is not accurate, as it is not unusual
for a land use approval to be over 10 pages in length and approved civil engineering plans are typically well over 3 pages in length and are also oversized documents which require significant
time and cost to copy. Finally, the City will NOT review records and attempt to copy only those portions in which you may be interested, only complete records will be copied.
Tahoma Terra – There are several land use permits and approximately 40 building permits that satisfy your revised criteria. I anticipate that it will require 14 days to review each
project file and that copy those records responsive to your request. I anticipate that charges will be between $60.00 and $200.00. There are many oversized documents within the land
use files that are responsive to your records request, including approved engineering drawings.
Thurston Highlands – There remain no records that are responsive to your request.
As always, you are welcome to view the project files and identify any specific records of which you wish to receive a copy. You should could coordinate a time to review the project
files with Roberta Allen of the Community Development Department.
If you have any questions regarding the materials, please contact the City at 458-3835 during normal business hours.
Sincerely,
Grant Beck, Director
Department of Community Development
c. Shelly Badger, City Administrator
Robert Allen, Administrative Assistant