Thurston County staff to explore enhanced ILA after Yelm requests trail parcel for parking

Thurston County commissioners on March 12 received a staff briefing and gave direction for staff to pursue an "Option 1 enhanced" approach after the City of Yelm asked to develop a parking lot adjacent to the county-owned Yelm–Rainier trail corridor, a 1.6-mile section of the Elray (El Reyne) Rainier Trail that lies inside Yelm's urban growth area.

The request, County Public Works staff said, concerns roughly seven county-owned parcels in the Yelm UGA. "They would like to develop a parking lot on their parcel, but there is not, based on their preliminary designs, adequate space for them to build out that parking lot without it encroaching on our trail right of way," said Karen Mason, County Public Works director. Mason and parks and trails staff said Yelm's council prefers to develop improvements on property the city owns and may seek Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) grant funding.

County staff framed three high-level options for the board: (1) allow development within the trail corridor through an interlocal agreement (ILA) with specified maintenance responsibilities; (2) transfer only the portion of county parcel needed for construction (for example via boundary line adjustment); or (3) transfer up to 1.6 miles of the trail parcels within the UGA. Commissioners asked staff to develop an "enhanced" version of option 1 that could include county-led construction (paving) paired with an expanded ILA for maintenance, and to return with concepts for negotiation with Yelm.

Mason told the board the county and the city already share some maintenance responsibilities on the corridor: "The City of Yelm primarily provides mowing within the UGA in their area. We provide some additional mowing and other items, as you can see, litter collection, trail and graffiti removal." Staff said graffiti and vandalism have been frequent in the area and that picnic tables and other amenities require ongoing repairs.

Public Works staff gave additional context on county planning metrics and costs. The county's parks level of service, as recorded in the county's parks, open space and trails plan and the comprehensive plan, is 3 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. Staff said Thurston County's developed parkland inventory is about 972 acres and that the county projects needing an additional roughly 209 acres to meet that standard — a combined ~1,181 acres. Staff estimated new trail construction at roughly $1,000,000 per mile and calculated that reaching the 209-acre target could cost on the order of $11 million, depending on corridor widths and site-specific conditions.

Commissioners questioned how much of the trail right-of-way would be needed for the city design; staff said the city had not provided schematic drawings and that the triangular parcel Yelm controls appears too narrow for a full parking field without some encroachment into county-owned trail corridor. Commissioners also raised permitting and state highway access concerns because the proposed parking would be adjacent to State Route 507; staff said the city would need to pursue any necessary state approvals, turn lanes or traffic control measures.

Several commissioners, citing past partnerships with South County cities such as Rainier and Tenino, urged keeping flexible options to preserve cooperative maintenance arrangements. Commissioner comments repeatedly favored an approach that retains county ownership while allowing the city to pursue grant funding and assume maintenance duties through an ILA, or to have the county construct the parking and enter an enhanced maintenance agreement with Yelm. "Option 4 would probably be option 1, enhanced, right, where we have a development within the trail corridor, but then we look at what the process and partnership is for our team to take that over and develop [a] parking lot," a commissioner said during the discussion.

The board approved a separate procedural motion at the start of the meeting to amend the agenda order; no formal vote on parcel transfer or a property conveyance occurred. Public Works staff will return with proposed language and concepts for an ILA and for county-assisted construction if the city is interested. The board directed staff to pursue the "Option 1 enhanced" path and report back with details for negotiation and possible follow-up actions.

Ending

Staff said they will engage Yelm public works and city leadership to determine whether Yelm still prefers ownership of the parcel for grant eligibility and to produce schematic plans; the county will present potential ILA terms, boundary-adjustment approaches and any construction proposals to the board for later action.