Palmdale Water Ordinance Passes

The City Council moved forward with its latest upgrade to its Water Conservation Ordinance. The city has had rules for years, but sustainability of resources demands increased efforts on our part. The new ordinance primarily targets new residential development.

Hofbauer has pressed for increased measures for year. The develoment industry, despite their denials, has fought these as too costly or unnecessary. Well, it seems the chickens are home to roost, as LA County refuses to issue any additional "Will Serve" letters, drying up their ability to get approvals for development.

Traditional turf will be banned from front yards of future development. Projects underway will be allowed a reasonalble cut off point to transition to the new standard. They won't be required to switch mid-block.

Existing homes will be required to meet the new standard only if they are declared SUBSTANDARD (i.e. they let the front lawn die beyond rehab). Back yards are exempt, although Hofbauer suggested a future modification that would allow homeowners the flexibility to transfer a portion of the back yard turf area to the front if it is omitted from the rear.

Commercial landscaping has had strict rules for drought tolerant landscaping for years.

NOT ENOUGH - ADDITIONAL MEASURES NEEDED

Hofbauer continued his call for requirements for all commercial development to install water saving touchless faucets and flush valves for new restrooms, and retrofit of hardware for any commercial renovation. Hofbauer's suggestions are already being implemented in many city facilities, especially at the Transportation Center.

Steve also reminded his colleagues of the need for local gardening and home improvement centers and nurseries to provide consumers with proper information on the suitability of various landscaping plants and groundcovers for use in the high desert. He has suggested an ordinance requiring the prominent posting of the city's approved plant list in all retail and wholesale gardening and landscaping establishments, as well as a tag or other means on each plant or shelf to notify the consumer of the plant's rating by the city and by accepted authorities, such as the Sunset Gardening guide, for use in the high desert.

A program to develop a "water credit" bank was suggested by Steve. This would take two approaches. One would allow developers and contractors to receive credits for extraordinary water saving measures, that could be used to offset fees, or traded to others that want enhanced landscaping.

Another program would require depositing of water credit fees into a account to help fund rebates and rehab programs for homeowners to retrofit their exisiting properties. Steve feels strongly that a positive, incentive based program will be more widely accepted than the draconian and costly retrofit programs being mandated by other communities.

Steve also reiterated his call for a re-evaluation of the policy of automatic extension of residential tract maps without an appropriate water study. Most deliberatley slip under the radar by phasing their maps to the trigger numbers and avoid state mandated focused EIR's to identify water impacts. Many of these are only speculative paper tracts, which are tying up valuable "will serve" letters that could be utilized for immenint commercial or industrial development to increase our job and tax base.

New development should also consider on-site treatment and recycling for localized purple pipe systems, and larger projects should be required to implement this equipment.

Steve has pushed for these improvements for years, but was ignored by the industry and colleagues more interested in appeasing campaign supporters than having vision for the community. Now that we are at a crisis stage, and these guys can't build, maybe we will work together for a solution.