Hofbauer's proposal leads to county to
re-evaluate stagnant will-serve commitments
County officials to rededicate water to new developments
Based on a story that appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Saturday, November 22, 2008, By BOB WILSON, Valley Press Staff Writer
PALMDALE - Los Angeles County officials confirmed this week they would be willing to rededicate water left unused by canceled development projects to new ones.
Palmdale's Councilman Steve Hofbauer raised the question during a Thursday breakfast meeting with 5th District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and other city and county representatives.
Palmdale is in the process of tallying the new home and business projects for which water has been promised by local providers, including county Waterworks District 40.
At issue is whether some of those projects should be granted discretionary extensions of their construction deadlines.
Because of a slow development market, the state Legislature in July adopted an urgency bill that automatically extended for one year the life of all approved projects in California.
The city's Planning Commission holds discretionary authority to deny any additional time extensions, which could eliminate the development of many homes and save the water those homes would use.
"We have a lot of paper projects that are out there right now that have 'will-serve' letters" from water providers, Councilman Steve Hofbauer said.
Hofbauer asked the Planning Commission and City Council in October to re-evaluate whether some projects approved by the city still have the promise of successful completion.
If some do not, "is there a possibility that the water credits, or the will-serve obligation, for that paper project can be transferred over to something that's really pending that we can move forward with?" he asked at Tuesday's meeting.
"Absolutely," said Adam Ariki, assistant deputy director of the Waterworks Division of the county's Department of Public Works.
Ariki estimated about 8,000 acre-feet of water have been promised for projects that have yet to be completed.
Hofbauer said "significant concern" existed about having such quantities of water set aside for projects that may never be built while promising projects go wanting.
If officials are told about projects that have been cancelled, the water previously set aside for them can be reallocated to new ones, Ariki said.
Judy Skousen, the city's assistant city attorney, on Nov. 6 distributed to members of the Planning Commission a memorandum detailing active and pending projects in the city.
The memo also noted how long each project could remain valid, how many times the deadline for each could be extended, how many homes, commercial buildings or industrial facilities would be erected.
Along with the memo, the city attorney's office is preparing amendments to regulations governing residential subdivisions, Skousen said.
When completed, the amendments will be submitted to the commission for review before they are submitted for adoption by the City Council, she said.
"One of the concerns the council had was that some of these maps seem to go on and on and on, and sometimes the discretionary approvals are not treated as discretionary - the Planning Commission feels it has to grant the requested extensions," Skousen said.
Although there have been questions about whether the Antelope Valley will have enough water in 2009, indications are that providers such as county Waterworks District 40 will have enough of a supply to meet demand, Mike Mischel, the city's director of Public Works, noted at the council's breakfast meeting.