From the Yelm Community Blog of May 24, 2008:

Last year on Friday, July 20, the Nisqually Valley News reported about Yelm’s new Wal-Mart opening and noted the official opening on July 18, 2007. The City of Yelm said then about the store’s requirements to mitigate traffic, “Wal-Mart will also pave 103rd Avenue from Creek Street to the new connection, which must be built within 10 months of the store’s opening.”

That 10 months was up on May 19, 2008…

Not seeing any connector, this writer wrote to Yelm’s Community and Government Relations Coordinator
Cindy Teixeira for an update for Yelm Community blog readers.

Here is her response:

“The land use approval and MDNS required the connector be constructed within 18 months of the purchase of the right of way. The State DOT closed on the property June 22, 2007, with the deadline being November 22, 2008. Wal-Mart contributed nearly $220,000 to the purchase of the right-of-way and the construction plans are in for review.

Wal-Mart has also submitted a letter of credit toward construction of the connector road.”

UPDATE: November 22, 2008
NOVEMBER 22, 2008 has come and gone and not seeing any construction on this connector last week, I again wrote to Yelm’s Community and Government Relations Coordinator Cindy Teixeira for an update. Lately, I have received NO answers from the City to my requests for information and this one is no exception. What is one to conclude when the City does not address these kind of issues, regardless of their opinion of me? What else are they hiding from the public? The only option left to get the City to answer is to paper them with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, to which by law, they must respond!

To reiterate, the Yelm Wal-Mart was ONLY permitted to be built by using the Yelm Bypass to mitigate its traffic.
The connector to 103rd was supposed to assist in that until the Bypass is built. As has been reported here ad nauseum, the Bypass was unfunded then and now and may be unavailable to mitigate Wal-mart’s traffic for 8-10 years after the Superstore opened in 2007. Why was Wal-Mart allowed to be built with an unfunded Bypass to mitigate its traffic?

DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY WAL-MART HAS NOT FULFILLED ITS AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY AND FOLLOWED THE LAND USE APPROVAL AND MDNS REQUIRING THE CONNECTOR TO BE CONSTRUCTED WITHIN 18 MONTHS OF OF THE PURCHASE OF THE RIGHT-OF-WAY?

WE CERTAINLY NOW KNOW THE CITY DID NOT FOLLOW THE LAWS OF LAND USE FOR 5 SUBDIVISIONS, AS THE THURSTON COUNTY SUPERIOR RULED ON NOVEMBER 7TH.
THE MAYOR SPOKE UNTRUTHS ABOUT THAT ISSUE IN THE NVN LAST FRIDAY.
IS THE CITY’S SILENCE INDICATIVE THE LAW WAS NOT FOLLOWED WITH WAL-MART, TOO?

DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW???