Tooele council questions city water use and sale after Desert Rose mixed-use proposal

Developers proposing the Desert Rose Business Lofts told the Tooele City Council on April 2 that the 5-acre project’s mixed commercial‑and‑residential units would need roughly 7.86 acre‑feet of water, and asked the city to allow use or sale of municipal water rights to support the development.

The proposal, presented by Amy Johnson of Y Street Capital, would create 43 mixed‑use units where owners could operate small businesses on a ground floor with living space above. Johnson said the development team compiled water‑use data from comparable projects and concluded the site would require about 7.86 acre‑feet of water for the full project. “Total needed for this development…we would need 7.86 acre feet to provide this many opportunities for commercial spaces,” Johnson said.

The request matters because Tooele City staff and several council members said the city’s existing water allocation standard is higher than the developers’ calculation and that selling or reallocating city water rights for residential uses could create long‑term supply and policy problems.

Johnson told…