Council restricts Lakeside allocation trading until Well 4R production study is complete

Council members on Aug. 6 debated a request by the Lakeside development to exchange two non-potable irrigation meters for 10 equivalent EDUs to allow 10 building permits. Attorney Showalter and James Cook said the developer had installed two non-potable wells for irrigation and sought to trade that capacity for EDUs. The council expressed displeasure that the wells were installed without prior notice and raised concerns about transparency and lost revenue.

James Cook said the developer "went through the process to obtain all the required permits and the wells are not against Town Code so they didn’t think to say anything to the Town." Commissioner Brian Schmidt noted each property is allocated one EDU, saying "each property is only allocated 1 EDU so even if the irrigation meters were using the same capacity as 10 EDUs the allocation was not there to trade for 10 but they could consider trading for 2." President Newnam moved to prohibit trading allocations until Well 4R is complete and a production study had been done; the motion passed 4-1 (Schmidt opposed).

Council directed staff to withhold allocation trades tied to the irrigation wells until town water production and allocation for Well 4R are clarified by a production study, and indicated possible limited trades could be revisited with evidence from that study. The action was recorded as a formal council decision affecting ongoing permit issuance for Lakeside.