By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Faced with uncertainty over its strained water supply, the Cheney City Council used its July 24 meeting to pass a pair of emergency six-month moratoriums on building permits and subdivision applications.
The moratoriums affect new subdivision preliminary plats and five-acre parcels of land yet to be platted, but do not apply to properties having filed completed building permit applications complying with city codes – properties having “vested rights.”
The subdivision moratorium goes into effect immediately. The building permit moratorium, also effective immediately, completely halts all permits when the city reaches 95 percent of available water capacity. City officials estimate Cheney is currently at about 90 percent capacity.
City attorney Dan Maggs told the council the moratoriums were needed because there were a number of five-acre parcels capable of being subdivided into smaller plats while at the same time the city could not determine whether or not it had water to service those properties, something state law requires.
Water is allocated by what are called ERUs – equivalent residential units. Cheney Community Development director Tom Richardson said in an interview last Wednesday that ERUs are calculated using a formula that includes overall yearly water sales and daily peak pumping statistics.
For Cheney, that works out to an average of 350 gallons per day per single-family home. Apartment complex ERUs average about 41 percent of that figure per unit.
Cheney officials have calculated the city has approximately 300 ERUs of capacity left in its water supply system. With the building permit moratorium capping the permit process at 95 percent of capacity, Richardson said the city has roughly 205 ERUs left for allocation to existing permits.
“We're probably pretty close to it (95 percent) if we haven't already gone over it,” Richardson said.
Cheney is scurrying to add another well to its system, and has a $56,787 contract with CH2M Hill for engineering a test well site north of the wastewater treatment plant to determine if the site has enough water to meet the city's needs. If so, the city can proceed with drilling an eighth well, possibly coming on line as soon as late spring 2008, and public works director Don MacDonald told the council he is working with CH2M Hill to speed the process up.
Where the problem lies is Cheney's existing building applications. Richardson said the Golden Hills development in north Cheney has 120 more units to add, all of which have legal rights to water. It would be highly unusual if more than 30-40 of those homes were built over the next year, Richardson said, creating the possibility some water allocations could be shifted.
The city also just approved two new developments at Terra Vista, an 89-unit subdivision along Cheney-Plaza Road – 89 ERUs – and the 192-unit student-only apartment complex The Grove – 79 ERUs – along Cheney-Spangle.
Another student-housing complex, Eagle Point, is looking at a completion date of fall 2008, bringing 120 more apartments using 49 ERUs of water capacity. Richardson said he has not received an application from the owners of the proposed development on Washington Street north of Golden Hills, and therefore they have no vested rights.
“They are affected (by the moratorium),” Richardson said.
And while those effects may be clear on Eagle Point, they are less so with Terra Vista, something the development's owner, Steve Emtman of Defender Developments LLC, made clear to the council on July 24.
Visibly frustrated, Emtman wondered why the moratorium applied to parcels of five acres or more, and complained the city had given him “three moving targets” when it came to how much water was available for his use.
“We still can't get confirmation from the city as to how much water the city has,” he said. “If you're going to stop me, does that mean 20 other projects can come in and take up those ERUs and delay mine?”
Emtman said the uncertainty has created financing difficulties, especially with The Grove's developer Campus Crest. He questioned the council how they expected him to procure financing for developments with so much uncertainty regarding resources.
“We were told when applying that you had water, and now, we're going for permits, we don't,” he said. “I'm confused. I don't know what to do.”
The council voted unanimously to approve the subdivision moratorium, and 5-1 to OK the one on building permits. Councilman Tom Trulove was the lone dissenting vote, expressing sympathy with Emtman's position, and irritation with approving developments when questions existed about the viability of the city's water supply.
The moratoriums require public hearings within 60 days of enactment. City attorney Frank Conklin said the measures weren't to stop development, but to provide time to get a better idea of the amount of water available to Cheney.
ERUs, he said, are not representative of how much water lies below the city.
“You can't water your lawn with ERUs,” Conklin said.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]
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