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Monte Vista council amends watering rules to allow weekend watering and set Monday as no-water day
Summary
The Monte Vista City Council voted to amend Resolution 2026-11 to permit residential watering on Saturdays and Sundays, designate Monday as the nonwatering day, narrow allowable watering hours, and explicitly allow limited hand-watering of gardens and tree-establishment by crews, citing drought conditions and enforcement limits.
Monte Vista officials voted to amend the city's sprinkler and lawn-irrigation rules, changing allowed watering days and clarifying hand-watering and tree-establishment exceptions. The amendment to Resolution 2026-11 was moved, seconded and carried during the council meeting.
The public works director, Robert Vance, told the council that dry conditions and rising temperatures have driven public concern about water use and that residents have asked for both Saturday and Sunday as watering days while making Monday the community's nonwatering day. "Conditions, as we all know, we're still really, really dry. Temperatures are increasing. It's quite hot outside right now," Vance said, summarizing recent feedback and the operational context.
Council members discussed adjusting the daily hours when irrigation is allowed to reduce evaporation, and several members favored a change that would narrow "no-water" hours earlier in the day. "We could reduce the watering hours to 8," Vance said during the discussion about moving the start time earlier to avoid peak heat.
Councilors also considered enforcement challenges. Vance and other staff noted that the city lacks a full code-enforcement staff and that public-education efforts have produced mixed compliance: some residents complied after being contacted, while others resumed prohibited watering the next day. Because citations and fines require an enforcement mechanism the city does not fully staff, the amended resolution focuses on clearer rules and education while allowing specific hand-watering exceptions.
The amendment instructs staff to allow hand watering of flowering and vegetable gardens (limited to short establishment periods when appropriate), permits crews to hand-water newly planted trees for establishment (staff indicated approximately 30 gallons per week per tree for a defined establishment window), and changes the weekday schedule so Monday is a nonwatering day while both weekend days are available to odd/even address schedules. Council discussed and agreed to improve public notice through billing inserts, website and social media postings.
The council made the motion to amend Resolution 2026-11, the motion was seconded and a roll-call vote carried the amendment. The council also asked staff to prepare the formal amendment text for publication and to bring the adopted language online and in the next utility-billing cycle so residents are informed.
Next steps: the council directed staff to post the amended resolution on the city website, include it in the upcoming billing cycle and continue targeted education; formal enforcement changes that would impose fines will be revisited only after staffing or code changes provide necessary capacity.
