Looking back on 2024, the issue that caused the biggest rift in Tumwater was a tree on Old Highway 99.
Mayor Debbie Sullivan’s plan to remove the Davis-Meeker Gary Oak tree, despite the Historic Preservation Commission recommending not to do so and without input from the city council, was an unwelcome idea in the eyes of many community members.
Efforts by a local group to preserve the Davis-Meeker Oak tree are the reason why the historic tree still stands.
Due to opposition from community members, Sullivan eventually decided to pause plans for the tree’s removal and agreed to hire another tree consultant to perform a second risk assessment.
This was in August, but the city council has yet to discuss the results of the assessment.
Here are the other highlights for Tumwater in 2024.
Tumwater Mayor Debbie Sullivan, who became the city’s first woman mayor in 2022, announced in November that she will not be seeking reelection.
Sullivan said that she always planned to serve two terms, but has been convinced by her family to retire as she has been working long enough.
That means 2025 will be Sullivan’s last year as mayor.
The Tumwater City Council voted to increase the city’s utility tax from 6% to 12% in order to reduce the city’s revenue-expense gap in the 2025-26 budget.
Sample calculations prepared by the city’s finance director demonstrated that an average residential utility bill would go up by $8 due to the tax increase, but that excludes the impact of planned increases to the base rate of utility fees. The last time the city increased its utility tax was in 1991.
Tumwater is moving forward with its plans for a community center after it hired Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture to design the facility, a plan that has been in development since 2019 when the Tumwater Metropolitan Park District was created to fund the facility.
The community center would feature space for meetings, events, sports and other recreational activities.
Land would also be set aside for a potential swimming pool. Four potential locations are being considered for the facility.
In October, the city council signed an interlocal agreement for the shared governance of Deschutes Estuary project, which seeks to make Capitol Lake into an estuary by removing the Fifth Avenue Dam. The city would contribute costs for maintenance dredging activities once the dam has been removed.
The city’s estimated contributions would total around $7.7 million by the time the partnership ends in 2050, a financial commitment that caused concern for some members of the public. The city would also take over a boardwalk at the lake's south basin as part of the agreement.
In September, the city council approved an agreement with Lacey to acquire its water rights at the Brewery Wellfield for $2.4 million.
Lacey will retain ownership of its rights and assets until Tumwater, along with Olympia, which owns a third of the water rights in the wellfield, has established infrastructure to utilize the water.
Once the water rights have been fully transferred, Tumwater will own the rights for an amout of water that could supply around 3,200 homes.
In July, the city completed the Trosper Road and Capitol Boulevard reconfiguration project, the city’s largest road project in recent history.
The project involved the construction of three roundabouts, on- and off-ramps for Interstate 5, and a new road extending from Lee Street. The total cost of the project was $13.9 million.
Plans for the Yorkshire Apartments moved forward after the city, through its former Hearing Examiner Mark Scheibmeir, approved the binding site plan for the apartment complex in January. The 21.7-acre development would create 1,153 residential units through a combination of seven, 5-story residential buildings and a mixed-use, 4-story building.
Before 2023 ended, the city council pulled back a controversial ordinance that, according to public interpretation, would have allowed indigent individuals to stay overnight in public properties.
The council discussed the proposed ordinance again in March, only to decide it would be better to wait on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Grant Pass v. Johnson case.
The Supreme Court has since ruled on the matter, which allows local government agencies to pass or enforce laws that ban camping or sleeping on public property. The council has not yet revisited the ordinance since.
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