Pitkin County review finds water availability, reliability shape where small-scale community housing could go

Pitkin County planning staff and consultants on Wednesday reviewed a new county water conditions analysis and told the Planning & Zoning Commission that water availability and, crucially, water reliability should be front and center when the county decides where to allow “community housing” outside established urban growth boundaries.

The county-contracted report, prepared for the comprehensive plan update (Vision 2050 / Comp Plan 2050), combined local provider surveys, state water-rights databases and regional planning documents to model current supplies and projected demand to 2050. “Roughly 40% of Pitkin County’s waters are diverted each year through these transmountain diversions,” Abby, a consultant with the Bridal Group, said during the presentation, citing the county’s reliance on surface and tributary groundwater sources.

Why it matters

The presentation tied the water analysis directly to the county’s long-running debate over where limited amounts of affordable and “missing‑middle” housing might be allowed outside urban growth boundaries (UGBs). Consultants said much of Pitkin County is federally owned or protected, leaving small islands of private land that are further constrained by steep slopes, floodplains and other hazards — and, in many places, by limited or unreliable water service.

Key findings and context

- Water sources and infrastructure: Almost all (about 99%) of Pitkin County’s water supply is from surface water and tributary groundwater, which are renewable but sensitive to drought and temperature changes. The county lies in the Colorado River Basin, a watershed the presenters described as “over‑allocated.”

- Public water systems and wells:…