Steve Klein addresses current issues impacting Yelm and vicinity and provides a meeting place for anyone with an interest in this area to provide their ideas and opinions
This upcoming Tuesday 10/13 at 6pm at Yelm City Hall, there will be a public hearing with council action on the Development Agreement between the City of Yelm and Blue Fern Development on developing a masterplanned community phased over the next 12-20 years.
While the Yelm Loop (Yelm Bypass) is finally being constructed after decades of delays, it is imperative that we continue to create more major connections to reduce Yelm traffic congestion. The Southern Loop will extend the 4 lane Tahoma Blvd and come out near George Rd, connecting SR 507 with SR 510 heading to Rainier (see graphic below). This 3.2 mile, 110 ft wide southern loop will cost approximately $30 million to construct and will likely be funded through Community Revitalization Financing (CRF). It’s a tax increment financing mechanism that allows municipalities to fund infrastructure improvements using growth in local property tax revenues generated within a designated area, which will be the 640 acres. This 4 lane blvd will not be paid by current Yelm residents.
Besides the Southern Loop and other infrastructure investments, this project will have planned housing (mostly single family but a mixture of different residential units), commercial, parks, open space, and property dedicated to schools, and emergency services. We are actively engaging with these relevant partners.
See more details on the graphics below from our latest study session presentation by Blue Fern. Over 5 phases with each phase taking multiple years, they will build about 3k residential units with the last phase estimated to be completed closer to 20 years. To put that in perspective since about 2020, there have been more than 200 houses built ever year in Yelm. While those projects have paid for frontage improvements like sidewalks or contributed traffic impact fees that will help pay for new intersections, it pales in comparison to the infrastructure we are going to see (and at the start of the project) and the control the city council has in the planning stages.
I’ve lived here when Yelm was under 2000 people in the 90s, now we have 13000 folks. I love Yelm for its small town charm, affordable housing prices, safety, amazing events and I’m sure many of you moved here for similar reasons. You were that growth at one time. Yelm is stronger for all the diverse people and businesses that have moved here and made Yelm their forever home. Lastly, remember this project will occur in decades, not overnight.
We have had 3 open houses this past year, about a half dozen recorded city council meetings and study sessions (with public testimony), and you will have another opportunity this upcoming Tuesday to hear what’s happening with the 640 acres and to speak your mind on it.
Thanks for reading all this and please be somewhat civil in the comments…
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Click here to read Mayor DePinto’s response to comments of this post above.
As Blue Fern Development prepareres to establish a master planned community in its 640-acre parcel, the City of Yelm is working to ensure that region of town will have water for years to come. Credit:NVN.
+ Editor’s note: Public comment will occur at the Oct. 13th council meeting.
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Blue Fern presents draft of development agreement with Yelm, including 3,000 residential units
Yelm City Council will vote on Blue Fern’s proposal on Tuesday, Oct. 13, during meeting
Representatives from Blue Fern Development were present during a special Yelm City Council study session meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to highlight what is included in its proposed development agreement with the City of Yelm.
Public comment will take place during the next official Yelm City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13. According to Mayor Joe DePinto, the council is likely to vote on Blue Fern’s proposed development agreement during the same meeting.
Yelm City Administrator Todd Stancil, ahead of a presentation from the team at Blue Fern Development, said it’s been “a long time coming” to get to this point with the development agreement.
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He added the development agreement allows both parties to move forward with planning and conceptual designs. Stancil reiterated that both Yelm and Blue Fern will continue to iron out “the rest of it.”
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According to Paulus [Ben Paulus, Blue Fern Development Chief Executive Officer], Blue Fern Development is planning on executing the project in five phases, including 500 to 600 residential units in each phase.
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Phase 1 is proposed to include roughly 600 residential units, two acres developed into an emergency services area, and a regional sanitary sewer lift station.
Phase 2 would develop 650 additional residential units, two acres of land would be developed for a water tower and easement and four acres of land would be developed for commercial or mixed uses.
Notably, 10 acres of land would be dedicated for a central public park in Phase 2.
Phase 3 would see an additional 650 units developed and six additional acres of commercial or mixed use space added.
Phase 4 would see an additional 400 residential units created, and affordable housing parcels “shall be assigned” if it hasn’t already been designated.
Lastly, Phase 5 will see an additional 700 residential units added.
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The development agreement also includes 10 acres of developable area committed to commercial use or mix use – based on the City of Yelm’s zoning codes. This includes 150,000 square feet of commercial or mixed use space. 40% of the commercial or mixed use space will be developed during Phase 2, while the remaining 60% will come during Phase 3.
Superintendent Chris Woods recently presented to the Yelm City Council during its Study Session, sharing information about the upcoming EP&O Levy and answering questions about the district’s needs and funding.
There is still an opportunity for community members to attend a Levy Listening Session, ask questions, and learn more:
Tuesday, October 13 – McKenna Elementary
6:00 p.m. or 7:30 p.m.
We encourage our community to join us, bring your questions, and be part of the conversation.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is fighting to end a lawsuit seeking further disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein records. Source: MEGA via OK!Magazine.
+ The Daily Beast:Trump Goon’s Ties to Epstein Found Dead – A former employee of Howard Lutnick has died months after tipping off Congress on the commerce secretary’s Epstein ties.
We’re excited to bring fast EV charging to beautiful Yelm, WA! 🦊 ⚡ 4 DC Fast chargers: 3 × 180 kW (Samsung C&T Charging Solutions) + 1 × 200 kW (XCHARGE North America) Catch a movie, grab a snack, or get some fresh air while your EV powers up. Another new stop on the map as we bring fast, convenient charging to more of the West Coast.
Thurston Regional Planning Council Senior Planner Veronica Jarvis presented a bridge design option under consideration for the Nisqually Bridge project at a meeting on Oct. 2, 2026. Courtesy of Washington State Department of Transportation via The JOLT News.
More than 25 percent of the complaints received by ORCAA are the result of outdoor burning issues. Outdoor burning accounts for approximately 10 percent of the state’s air pollution. ORCAA designates an air quality burn ban when fine particulate (PM2.5) levels are predicted to meet or exceed state and federal standards. ORCAA and other local air quality agencies may call either a Stage 1 or Stage 2 Burn Ban, depending on conditions.
Members of the public walk out of The Atrium, Thurston County’s administrative headquarters, on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. The Atrium is located at 3000 Pacific Ave. SE in Olympia. Credit: MSN.
Scammers are targeting Thurston Co. residents with fake invoices, officials warn
According to the news release, scammers are posing as Thurston County directors and emailing permit customers fake invoices demanding wire transfer payments.
“Officials say that while the county permitting office accepts electronic fund transfers, it doesn’t demand wire transfers for permitting services,” according to the release. “A wire transfer varies from an electronic transfer in that it usually requires an immediate, time-sensitive transaction that incurs a higher fee, and funds can’t be recalled, nor can the transaction be canceled.”
According to the release, those who are expecting an invoice from the county are being asked to carefully review the invoice information and contact the county’s building and development permit office at 360-786-5490 to confirm. You can also forward email invoices for confirmation to permit@thurstoncountywa.gov.
If someone calls requesting payment by phone, hang up immediately, according to the release. You can also report suspicious activity to the Thurston County Sheriff’s non-emergency number at 360-704-2740.
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What To Do
If you get a call – Hang up immediately. Don’t engage in conversation.
If you receive an email – Verify a permitting invoiceby forwarding it to permit@thurstoncountywa.gov to ask, or come into a County office to verify.
If you already got a call or email like this and gave out information – Report it by calling the Sheriff’s non-emergency line at at 360-704-2740.
When the credit union branch opened inside the Yelm Safeway in October 2006, it represented something new for the organization. The opening came during a period of tremendous growth in Yelm, WA. At the time, credit union leaders saw an opportunity to better serve members by establishing an additional location on the east side of town while also investing in the expansion and remodeling of the original Yelm branch.
“The Yelm Safeway branch has been a part of this community for 20 years, and that’s something worth celebrating. We’ve had the privilege of helping generations of members through life’s milestones, challenges, and successes. In a community like Yelm, you get to watch families grow, see children become parents themselves, and witness local businesses flourish.”
“These connections make our work so meaningful. We’re incredibly grateful for the relationships we’ve built over the years and for the opportunity to continue serving this wonderful community for generations to come,” said Branch Manager Jody Yeagly.
As we celebrate the anniversary of our Yelm in-store branch, we’re also celebrating the people who made its success possible: our members, employees, and community partners. What began as the organization’s first in-store branch has become an enduring example of Peak’s commitment to meeting members where they are and providing convenient, trusted financial services close to home.
Thank you, Yelm, for being part of this journey. We look forward to serving this incredible community for many years to come.
Happy 20th Anniversary to our Yelm in-store branch!
Yelm’s Nisqually Valley News features blogger, former mayoral candidate Steve Klein
+ Editor’s note: Almost 10 years later, I still receive questions about the person behind the Yelm Community Blog. This story from 2017 is pertinent in addressing readers’ questions.
Thursday, March 23, 2017 6:36 am
By Andrea Culletto, Nisqually Valley News Correspondent (used with permission):
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For any society to thrive, it requires the active participation of its citizenry. Local activism comes in many forms — educational, environmental, health, safety and so on. For local community activist Steve Klein, it came in the form of information.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Klein went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Miami, Florida, in 1976 followed by a master’s degree in 1978 with a major in airline management.
He was recruited by Eastern Airlines where he later became the youngest senior sales interim regional director of a Fortune top 50 company at the age of 31. Klein later took a position as assistant sales director of Pacific Southwest Airlines, the “airline with a smile.”
“They had hot pink and burgundy and magenta and these bright colors,” Klein said. “It was the fun airline, real hip in the ’70s and ’80s.”
When PSA was bought out by U.S. Air in the late 1980s Klein chose not to relocate and left to become an industry consultant specializing in marketing live airline computer interfaces for travel agents and business accounts.
After discovering Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment [RSE], Klein retired from the airline industry and relocated to Yelm in 1988. He went to work for RSE in 2003 as the travel logistics manager. He went on to work as a Ramtha spokesperson and the school’s event services manager.
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A Call to Social Activism
Klein’s call to social activism came after 9/11 when he sent an email to a group of friends sharing some key posts that he found compelling and which weren’t widely circulated in the mainstream news.
Driven by a desire to uncover and share useful information, Klein began compiling excerpts of news stories that he found interesting and sending them out in weekly newsletters. This mailing was dubbed “Kleiner’s Korner” and Klein continued to produce it for more than 10 years.
“Every week it grew until I had a worldwide following and an email list of 5,000 to 6,000,” he said. “I found out if I could get my readers direct access to stories they were interested in, for them to read for themselves, it was really vital. So that’s what I did.”
Klein became interested in the local political scene in Yelm, which was experiencing a population boom accompanied by an increase in new city council members and a new mayor. “When I came to Yelm, our population was roughly 1,900 and at this point we were approaching 4,000 so there were some growing pains,” Klein said.
Klein started attending city council meetings and eventually ran for mayor in 2005. The bid was unsuccessful but two months later Klein was contacted by a web designer who encouraged him to continue communicating with the community as he had done throughout his campaign. The designer offered to set up a blog.
“I asked, ‘What’s a blog?’” Klein said.
Initially reluctant to add the project to his workload, Klein’s first blog was published March 29, 2006. That first post discussed the burgeoning school population at the time, an issue which is still relevant today.
In addition to Kleiner’s Korner and the Yelm Community Blog, Klein also added to the local media landscape through the creation of Yelm.com. Klein realized that, while larger businesses were showcased on the Yelm Area Chamber’s website, many small, home-based or cottage industry businesses were lacking coverage.
“I wanted to make a site to represent everyone,” Klein said. “In the end, I spent about $10,000 to create the website as a gift to the community.”
The Yelm Community Blog hit a turning point when Klein encountered a strange lead following proposed development in Yelm that included the 5,000-home Thurston Highlands residential development.
“We were talking about quadrupling the size of this town in relatively short order,” Klein said.
JZ Knight brought a water rights lawsuit against the city and a group of developers, which worked its way to the state Supreme Court where Knight finally prevailed in 2011. The court battle put the Thurston Highlands development on hold until the case could be resolved. In the meantime, the 2008 economic downturn hit and the developers went bankrupt unbeknown to the public, Klein said.
“I was hearing some things at the city council meetings and seeing some public documents that led me to believe that they went bankrupt and that the city was left holding the bag without contracts to get repaid for taxes and environmental impact fees,” Klein said. “So I went to an engineer that I know and I presented some facts. He said, ‘You’re on the right track but you have to do your homework. You have to go get the public documents and put them on the blog because if you come out with your accusations (without them) you are going to have a speeding freight train coming toward you from the city administration, from the developers and some people in Yelm that are going to be very embarrassed about what you reveal. You have to build a wall brick by brick that is impenetrable to that freight train. The way you do it is the way you’ve done it on Kleiner’s Korner. You get the facts, you get the documents with public documents requests and you put it all on the site so it’s irrefutable.’”
Klein published the story in May 2009, complete with relevant documents.
“I broke the story that the Thurston Highlands Development went bankrupt, that the city had known about it from the previous fall, that the city was owed several hundred thousand dollars in taxes and unpaid fees, that the public had not been informed and that this development was not then going to happen,” Klein said.
The publication was not without backlash.
“There were a lot of people with a lot of black eyes here,” Klein said. “My name was mud for a lot of years with the city administration and a lot of people, but nonetheless the public had the right to know.”
Klein started looking into and reporting on other issues in Yelm.
“I realized that this was an important story for the community that I broke and that I had the unique interest, capability and background to be able to do some research on these stories to effectively report on them,” Klein said.
Klein continues to use his online presence to address current issues impacting the Yelm area as well as showcasing local talent and addressing other matters of interest. He still monitors Yelm City Council meetings, although he now usually enjoys the meetings from the comfort of his own home via live streaming.
“I watch every one of them,” he said. “I never miss one.”
He and his wife are fully immersed in the Yelm community and are active contributors to the Yelm Business Association, the Yelm Food Co-op and Thurston County Democrats among other organizations. Philanthropy is important to the couple who support local education, community arts and local social programs.
Klein officially retired from RSE employment in 2014 and now spends his time engaged in his many volunteer activities, the Yelm Community Blog and [as owner of Yelm.com].
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Social Activists Wanted
Klein is committed to being a government and community watchdog.
He said “people don’t go to the council meetings because of fear — fear of people, fear of speaking in public, fear of being on the record. Fear overcomes them. I am not afraid to go to the council and speak up to have a greater, in-depth understanding. … I’m most proud of giving the public the information for them to make their own decisions. I’m not here to sway the public to agree with me; we’re not going to agree. What I am most proud of is that I give the public a viewpoint with which they can make their own decisions.”
Looking forward he sees positive possibilities on the horizon.
“The city of Yelm and surroundings are on the threshold of dynamic change and all of the pieces are in place to create a synergy that will catapult Yelm into a marvelous future,” Klein said. “That requires — indeed demands — public participation to further the potentials in our midst.”
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+ Editor’s note: The Yelm Community Blog is in the 21st year of serving our community.
