ST. GEORGE — Poised to pass an amended water conservation and landscaping ordinance after nearly six months of work, the St. George City Council voted 5-0 to table adoption of the revised code Thursday in order to address lingering concerns of council members and local builders.
While the bulk of the proposed amendments was favored by most of the council, a measure of confusion remained among council members and developers regarding a change in how the city will approve future projects.
“I’ve gotten several phone calls where they (the builders) are a little confused on where we are and what’s going to be required of them,” Council member Jimmie Hughes said of the proposed code revisions. “So that’s where this concern comes from.”
Will serve letters
Of particular concern to Hughes and other council members are the “will serve letters” the city will require builders to secure from the Washington County Water Conservancy District.
Under the proposed water conservation ordinance, a developer will require a will serve letter as a part of the building permit approval process. The letter is to be issued by the water district when impact fees are paid, thus granting a developer’s project access to a water connection.
While a will serve letter will help show the city that a developer has obtained access to the water needed to serve their project, it also provides the water district with a way to monitor what new building projects are being approved by the cities it provides water to. This will also help the water district track how much water is allocated to various projects and how much may yet be available for future use.
“We don’t want to get a home halfway built and then say, ‘Oh, sorry, we’re out of water,’” Scott Taylor, the water services director for St. George, told the council.
However, the water district currently has no policy of issuing will serve letters and has no plans to do so until next year. Between now and then, the water district needs to go to cities in the county that are a part of a preexisting regional water plan to approve the policy change.
This is where some of the confusion appears to come in. What is a builder to do between the time the city approves its ordinance revisions and Jan. 1?
Taylor and Deputy City Attorney Jami Brackin said the city wanted to be flexible in this regard by providing language in the new ordinance that allowed for the evidence of impact fee payment (like a receipt of payment), to be used in place of a will serve letter.
Despite this, area builders, as represented by Stacy Young, government affairs director for Southern Utah Home Builders Association, said there were concerns about how the new ordinance may be implemented regarding the will serve letter requirement. Worries were also expressed that much could change in the next six months, and he suggested the city hold off on approving the proposed ordinance until the water district begins to issue official letters.
Ultimately, discussion on this issue led the City Council to table the proposed water conservation ordinance with instructions to city staff to rework language in the ordinance regarding the will serve letters.
A six-month-long process
The City Council has until Aug. 3 to adopt the new ordinance as that is the time a 6-month temporary zoning ordinance banning the approval of new car washes and other heavy water-using facilities runs out.
Council members said they anticipate wrapping up and adopting the amended conservation ordinance before the temporary zoning ban expires.
The proposed water conservation ordinance the city has been working on for the last half-year has its origins in a water summit held by the county water district last fall. Since then the city has held a series of stakeholder meetings and worked with builders and the water district on the water conservation ordinance revisions. The idea of the will serve letters was originally one brought to the water district by developers.
Proposed revisions to the city’s water conservation and landscaping code are seen as necessary due to the ongoing drought in the region that has worsened over the last two years.
Thus far, Ivins, Santa Clara, Hurricane and Washington City have passed similar water conservation ordinances.
“This has been a long time in the making,” Taylor said.
Other concerns
“As the freedom-loving American in the room I had a heart-attack when I read through this,” Councilwoman Michelle Tanner said.
She objected to various parts of the ordinance as she believes it makes the matter “much more complicated than it needs to be” and she is “not comfortable with giving government that much power.”
Elements of the proposed ordinance Tanner did not agree with allow city staff to enter someone’s property to check their water meters, and in extreme cases or water waste, shut off someone’s water access.
“It should be our goal to educate and not mandate,” Tanner said.
Tanner also said a majority of the points covered in the proposed ordinance were already being practiced by builders. She questioned why was it considered necessary to codify these points if builders were already abiding by them.
Councilwoman Danielle Larkin said having the standards outlined in the code would help keep builders that may otherwise abuse the system in check.
If adopted by the city, the amendment ordinance will apply to new residential and commercial development only and not existing homes and businesses.
A basic breakdown of St. George’s proposed ordinance can be found in the slides below, courtesy of the city of St. George and CEC.
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