Yelm planners present climate chapter draft under new state mandate; baseline, hazards and measures outlined

Consultants told the Yelm City Council and the planning commission that the city’s comprehensive-plan update must include a new climate element required by the state Growth Management Act change in House Bill 1181, passed in 2023.

"The growth management plan updates requires a a new element, which is a climate element," said Phil Beach, principal ecologist, who presented the draft with project biologist Maggie Wolf. The law requires two subelements: one for greenhouse-gas reduction and one for climate resilience. The city received a Department of Commerce grant to support development of both subelements.

What consultants reported: The project team has completed baseline work — a climate vulnerability analysis and a greenhouse-gas inventory — and presented those earlier to the planning commission. "We’ve gone through a process of documenting the climate resilience or vulnerability analysis to identify baseline conditions, as well as the greenhouse gas inventory," Beach said. The greenhouse-gas inventory remains open until goals are finalized so measurements and projections align.

The draft goals and policies presented include aligning city plans with climate goals, increasing incentives for infill and redevelopment to reduce vehicle miles traveled, creating a city web page detailing health risks linked to climate change, improving flood-risk mapping and disclosure, planting drought- and pest-resistant vegetation in parks, analyzing benefit–cost for water-conserving adaptations, planning for potential climate-driven migration, and requiring fire-protection plans for new development in high wildfire-risk wildland–urban interface areas. "A lot of these are thematically on point, but maybe need just a little extra in order to actually meet the requirements that are now legally required under the growth management act," Wolf said.

Public and council feedback: Council members and planning commissioners asked for Yelm-specific context and clarity on geographic boundaries for analyses — specifically whether inventories cover city limits only or the urban growth area. Consultants clarified the analyses cover city boundaries and the city's urban growth area; county addresses outside the UGA were excluded. Council members also asked that economic impacts be addressed and pressed for clearer flood maps and references to prior local creek improvement studies.

Timeline and next steps: Consultants said they will continue public and commission feedback collection, refine the vulnerability analysis and greenhouse-gas inventory, and finalize goals and policies for inclusion in the comprehensive-plan update with an aim to adopt the plan by year end.

Ending: The climate chapter will be reviewed by the planning commission and then by council as part of the rolling comprehensive-plan review; staff and consultants stressed the draft will be customized "to be localized and customized to Yelm," as the consultants put it.