Wallsburg council adopts one-year ban on new out-of-town culinary water hookups

The Wallsburg Town Council voted to adopt Ordinance 2025-002, temporarily prohibiting new culinary water connections to properties outside the town’s incorporated boundaries for one year. The ordinance, introduced after a May 1 public hearing, cites state authority for municipal control over culinary water systems and sets a review date of June 1, 2026.

The ordinance defines an "out-of-town connection" as any proposed culinary hookup servicing a parcel located outside Wallsburg’s municipal boundary and declares that "No new connections to the Wallsburg Town culinary water system shall be allowed for any property located outside the incorporated boundaries of Wallsburg Town" except for two exemptions: connections that existed before the ordinance’s effective date (grandfathered) and emergency repair or replacement of service lines to existing, legal users outside the town limits.

The ordinance text requires the council to continue studying system capacity, water rights and legal frameworks and to coordinate with irrigation companies and the Utah Division of Water Rights on consistent policy. The measure states it becomes effective immediately upon publication and posting as required by Utah Code section 10-3-7.

The council moved and seconded the adoption; individual roll-call votes were taken with the transcript recording affirmative responses for Scott Larson, Terry Issel, Mary Piscatelli and Ron Horton. The chair announced the ordinance "passed and approved by the Wallsburg Town Council this July 2025." The council asked staff to address annexation cases on a case-by-case basis and said any annexed property would be treated as part of the town.

Council members and staff said the ordinance is intended as a temporary measure while the town completes system capacity and long-term planning work and that exceptions may be considered under the ordinance’s stated exemptions.