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Seaside council allocates Pure Water Monterey supply to ADUs, affordable housing and downtown projects
Summary
Council accepted 21 acre‑feet per year from the Pure Water Monterey recharge program and approved an allocation plan prioritizing ADUs, low‑income housing and small-business needs; council added 2 acre‑feet more for West Broadway to spur downtown development.
The Seaside City Council on Thursday approved a proposed allocation of water made available through the Pure Water Monterey groundwater recharge project, moving to distribute 21 acre-feet per year among accessory dwelling units, affordable housing needs and small-business allocations while keeping a modest reserve for future requests.
Planning Manager Andrew Myrick presented background on the city’s water accounts and explained how the Pure Water Monterey project provides recycled water credits to member agencies. Myrick told the council those credits total 21 acre-feet for Seaside and must be assigned to uses within the Cal-Am service area.
Staff proposed a split that would reserve roughly 3 acre-feet for ADUs (accessory dwelling units) — to clear the remaining wait-list and enable future ADU permits — 6.5 acre-feet for low-income housing required by the city’s housing element, 2 acre-feet to support off-site affordable units tied to the Campus Town project, 1.5 acre-feet for a small-business allocation account, and 2.5 acre-feet to top up the West Broadway Urban Village allocation. That left a small unallocated reserve for nonprofits and unanticipated projects.
Councilmembers discussed community priorities during a long public conversation. Several speakers urged the council to protect water for long-delayed residential additions, noting homeowners have waited decades for allocations. Others, including council members, said a portion of the supply should be reserved to encourage downtown redevelopment and avoid an early depletion of allotments for economic projects.
After discussion the council approved staff’s framework with one change: the council voted to transfer an additional 2.0 acre-feet from the unallocated reserve to the West Broadway allocation to better support downtown redevelopment proposals. The action was unanimous.
Myrick and council members noted that the city’s water allocations do not alter the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s broader restrictions, including the existing cease-and-desist order that limits new meters. Staff said the allocations create an administrative pathway to award credits for projects that already meet permitting requirements.
What the allocation means in practice: a 50‑seat restaurant, for example, consumes roughly 1 acre-foot under the district’s tables; most modest small-business changes need only fractions of an acre-foot. The council asked staff to return refined administrative rules allowing staff-level approvals and sliding scales for small-business awards, rather than an all-or-nothing threshold.
Speakers included Planning Manager Andrew Myrick; Councilmembers Pacheco, Young and Miller; and multiple members of the public.
