301 Yelm Ave E Cozy Home Improvements (2)
City of Yelm
Community Development Department
105 Yelm Avenue West
Yelm, WA 98597
Pre-Application Meeting
February 8, 2017
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: Aaron Danner, Cozy Home Improvements, LLC
Project Proposal: Construct 255 sq. ft. addition to existing building as office space.
Project Location: 301 Yelm Avenue East
Parcel Number: 22719340900
Property Background and Characteristics
The property is approximately .24 acres and is currently occupied by a commercial building. It
is located on the corner of Yelm Avenue East and Third Street. Adjacent properties are either in
commercial use, or vacant commercial land.
Proposal
The proposal is to enclose an existing loading dock area to create additional office space. The
property is zoned Central Business District (CBD) which is codified at Chapter 18.35 YMC. Retail
and service oriented establishments are a permitted use in Section 18.35.020 YMC, subject to
site plan review.
Critical Areas
The City critical area maps indicate that the property is located outside of wetlands, flood
zones, and high ground water areas.
All of Yelm is considered a critical aquifer recharge area. Protection measures for development
within a critical aquifer recharge area are met through treating and disposing of stormwater
through an approved stormwater system.
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Fish and Wildlife Habitat Conservation Areas
The Critical Areas Code maps indicate the property contains soils suitable as habitat for the
Mazama Pocket Gopher, a protected species listed on the Washington Priority Species and
Habitat List as well as the Federal Threatened Species List. If members of the species are found
on the property, a critical areas report is required.
Compliance with Yelm’s requirements under the Critical Areas Code does not ensure
compliance with the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. The applicant should contact
Tim Romanski of the US Fish and Wildlife Service at 360.753.5823 or tim.romanski@fws.gov
with any questions about compliance with Federal standards for threatened species.
Development Standards
Water
The site is located in the City of Yelm’s water service area and currently connected to city water
service. It is not anticipated that the additional offices would create additional water use.
All commercial buildings and irrigation systems are required to provide for cross-connection
control through the provisions of a back flow prevention device (reduced pressure backflow
assembly) installed on the water services. A list of approved devices can be found at Chapter
246-290-490 WAC. If irrigation is installed, a double detector check valve is required.
There is an RPBA on the existing meter.
Sewer
As built records show that the shop is currently connected to the City sewer system. If the use
creates additional water connections, additional sewer connections would be required.
Section 13.08.080 YMC provides a list of prohibited discharge of waters or waste into the STEP
system. These include, but are not limited to, fats, oils and grease, flammable or explosive
substances, and hazardous wastes.
Stormwater
The City of Yelm has adopted the 2014 Stormwater Management Manual for Western
Washington published by the Washington Department of Ecology. Stormwater from new
impervious surfaces is required to be treated and released. Roof runoff shall be distributed to
individual dry wells.
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Transportation
Ingress and egress at the site shall be consistent with the Yelm Development Guidelines,
Section 4B.140. There are existing accesses on Yelm Avenue and Third Street. Parking stripes
have been painted in the driveway access from Yelm Avenue. If these spaces are intended for
parking, the access will need to be permanently blocked.
The City of Yelm Development Guidelines and the concurrency requirements of Chapter 18.16
YMC require all new developments to improve street frontages to current City standards. Yelm
Avenue East (SR 507) is considered an Urban Arterial, and includes a center turn lane, an 11’
traffic lane, and a 5’ bike lane. This section of Yelm Avenue is considered a Pedestrian Oriented
Street, which requires a 12 foot sidewalk and street trees within tree grates.
3rd Street is considered a Local Access Commercial street, and includes an 11 foot travel lane, a
7 foot parking lane, a 6 foot planter strip and 5 foot sidewalk. It appears that there is only 40
feet of R-O-W on Third Street. Right of way dedication is required. The amount to be
determined at site plan review.
While frontage improvements are required for all new development in the City, partial
improvements are typically not encouraged. A deferral request would be considered for a
portion, or all of the frontage requirements on Yelm Avenue East (SR 507) and Third Street.
Parking
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. Except
as approved by the Site Plan Review Committee in specified locations within the central
business district, 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.
Although the CBD allows minimum parking requirements to be waived where on street parking
is available, the owner, developer or operator of the premises shall be responsible for providing
adequate amounts of, and arrangement of parking space.
Chapter 17.72 YMC requires retail establishments to provide one parking stall space for every
250 square feet of gross floor area, and business/professional offices one parking stall space for
every 300 square feet. In the case of two or more uses in the same building, the total
requirements for off-street parking facilities shall be the sum of the several uses computed
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separately. If all spaces are business/professional office space, a total of 12 parking stalls are
required. There are currently 14 stalls on the site.
City of Yelm Development Guidelines requires that parking areas be paved and landscaped.
Parking lot landscaping includes a minimum of at least 24 square feet of landscape for each
parking stall proposed; each landscape area must contain at least 100 square feet of area. Live
groundcover shall be provided throughout each landscape area, and each planting area must
contain at least one tree.
A Parking plan shall be submitted with Site Plan Review.
Building Design
Development must include planning measures to create an attractive street edge. This is
accomplished by defining the street edge with building, landscaping or other features,
providing direct access to building fronts from sidewalks, and providing substantial landscaping
if parking is located adjacent to street frontage.
Building design should be comfortable at a human scale, and incorporate features such as
balconies in upper stories, bay windows, building articulations, covered entries, or upper story
setbacks.
The building is existing and meets design standards. The addition must continue the design of
the existing building.
Site Planning
Pedestrian circulation requires that buildings have a paved pedestrian pathway from the street
sidewalk to the main entry. If access traverses a parking lot, it shall be of a material different
that the parking lot material.
Development on corner lots at street intersections must enhance the property’s visual qualities
at the corner by installing substantial landscaping, a decorative screen wall, trellis or other
continuous architectural element, or other element approved by the City.
Service areas and outdoor storage shall be located away from neighboring properties and
located behind the building. No refuse container shall be permitted between a street and the
front of a building. Refuse storage areas shall meet the minimum height requirements of Table
18.1 YMC and be constructed of CMU, wood or architectural steel. Landscaping shall consist of
shrub trees of the thuja occidentalis pyramidal variety, standing three to five feet tall. Trash
enclosures shall be designed to contain all refuse generate don-site and deposited between
collection.
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Commercial developments shall coordinate with the US Postal Service for the location of
mailbox. Mailboxes shall be cluster box units (CBU) and not located on the street.
Perimeter landscaping is required to provide visual relief, and consists of an eight (8) foot
planter strip with groupings of evergreen and deciduous trees, and shrubs.
Approval Process
Site Plan Review
Ministerial Site plan review and approval is required prior to the use of an existing building for a
use that is not similar to the pervious use, or expansion that is 25 % or less of the building
footprint. The minimum application requirements can be found in Chapter 18.10 YMC and are
listed on the application form.
A site plan review 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
The project is exempt from SEPA pursuant to 197-11-800 WAC, as the building is less than 4,000
square feet in area, and less than 20 parking stalls are required.
Building Permit Process
The City of Yelm has adopted the 2015 International Codes as amended by the State Building
Code Council for Building, Fire, Mechanical, Fuel Gas, Existing Building and the Uniform
Plumbing Code and the Washington State Energy Code.
The proposal is to convert 255 square feet of loading dock into office space. According the
Thurston County Assessor’s Office the building was constructed in 1968 and is a 3276 square
foot building in average condition. The Change of Occupancy for the loading dock will be from
a U Occupancy (utility) to a B Occupancy (office). The occupancy number will be determined at
plan submittal. For the purposes of today’s notes the occupancy number for the offices will be
assumed to be 4 additional occupants. The converted area shall comply with all of the
applicable provisions of WESC 2015, the IBC, and Section 1002 2015 IEBC. Some but not all of
the requirements shall be:
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• C505 – Change of occupancy or use – spaces undergoing a change in occupancy shall be
brought up to full compliance with the Washington State Energy code. (1) Any space
that is converted from an F, S or U occupancy to occupancy other than F, S or U.
• One accessible building entrance shall be required. One accessible parking stall is
required for every 25 stalls. One van accessible stall is required for each six accessible
stalls, provided at least one van accessible stall is provided.
• An accessible path shall connect building entrance to public ways and accessible parking
stalls.
• Exit door by offices must swing out with automatic closer.
• An accessible route is required from the entrance to all primary functions within the
building. The doors shown on each side of the storage room must be eliminated.
• Accessible unisex toilet room and fixtures shall be required.
• Mechanical Ventilation and exhaust shall meet the IMC Table 403.3 for fresh air and
exhaust [for the addition].
• HVAC, Plumbing and building alterations shall comply with their respective code.
Building elevations, site utility screens and refuse pad wall showing compliance with City of
Yelm Design Guidelines shall be submitted with the site plan review application.
Allow at least 8 to 12 weeks for Building Plan Review and 2 weeks for design guideline review.
Fees & Charges
Ministerial Site Plan Review $250.00
Civil Plan Review Billed on a cost recovery basis
Building Plan Review Based on 1997 UBC fee Schedule
Building Permit Based on 1997 UBC fee Schedule
Sewer Connection Fee $6,394.00 per ERU
Sewer Inspection Fee $145.00 per ERU
Water Connection Fee $6,289.35 per ERU
Water Meter Fee Based on meter size
Transportation Facilities Charge $1,497.00 per new peak PM trip
The Transportation Facility Charge (TFC) is per new PM peak trip generated by the
development. The TFC for additional business/professional office space of 255 square feet
would be $1,404.78.