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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1993/01/21 MINUTES OF A JOINT MEETING OF THE CITY OF CHIJIA VISTA CITY COUNCIL AND THE SAN DIEGO COIYNTY BOARD OF SIJPERVISORS Thursday, January 21, 1993 County Administration Center 3:00 p.m. Board Chamber, Room 310 CALL TO ORDER 1. ROLL CALL: PRESENT: Councilmembers Horton, Moore, Mayor Pro Tem Rindone ABSENT: Mayor Nader and Councilmember Fox 2. APPROVAL OF MINIfiT:S: None 3. ORAL COMMDNICATIONS - None 4. CONTINUED PUBLIC HFARING - OTAY RANCH - Staff presentation on Water Availability - Otay Ranch: 1) Metropolitan Water District, 2) San Diego County Water Authority, and 3) Otay Water District Anthony Lettieri, Otay Ranch General Manager, reported the meeting was the last in a series of workshops held by the Planning Commissions and Board of Supervisors/Council. The purpose had been to identify issues and raise questions preparatory to hearings which would follow the Planning Cornmission's recommendations on the project. The purpose of the workshop was to address all issues concerning water supply to Otay Ranch. Dexter Wilson, Wilson Engineering, introduced the Council/Board jurisdictionally to the project. Otay Ranch was basically three parcels of land: 1) the Western Parcel, which was totally contained within the boundaries of the Otay Water District, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the Metropolitan Water District; 2) the Northern Parcel, which was partially contained within the three agencies; and 3) the Southern Parcel, which was outside of the three agencies. He explained that areas within the Otay Water District required annexation to the Water Authority. George Buchanan, Superintendent, Metropolitan Water District, stated their goal was to provide a reliable, dependable water supply of high quality while addressing environmental issues in a responsible economical manner. He reviewed the history and structure of the District. In order to insure that the supply would meet the demand the District was examining the following: 1) a transfer system in the Delta area to allow full capacity to be transferred into the state system; 2) the purchase of water from farmers in the Central Valley area; 3) conservation, which the Metropolitan Water District encouraged even in periods of excess water; 4) reclamation projects, which the Metropolitan Water District would help finance within its service area if the agency could demonstrate that their project would indeed reduce imported water demands; 5) development of ground water basins to maximize ground water basin usage; and 6) a desalination process and a planned desalination plant, projects on which the Metropolitan Water District was moving forward despite significant environmental issues. The District desalination process was expected to cost half that of reverse osmosis; and that fewer but larger plants were being considered to ease siting and environmental problems. He stated the District was also developing a large new reservoir in the Hemet area which would double the surface capacity of reservoirs in Southern California and handle drought and emergency demands in case of an earthquake. Councilmember Moore questioned if the District obtained more water from the Central Valley how it would transfer from east to west. Minutes January 21, 1993 Page 2 Mr. Buchanan responded a new 12-14 foot pipeline would be built from Silvenvood to Don Mahoney reservoir, that line would also serve going west. Councilmember Rindone noted the Metropolitan Water District serviced a population of 15.5 million, serving over sixty percent of California with a little under five percent of total available water. Gordon Hess, San Diego County Water Authority, stated the Authority was a member of Metropolitan and took twenty-eight to thirty percent of the supplies delivered by the Metropolitan Water District and received ninety percent of the water used in San Diego County through the District. In order to meet the projected water demands and increasing reliability of the present system, the following actions would be needed: 1) a complete State water project for the transfer of water through the Delta; 2) reclamation, in the hope of developing 50,000 acre feet of reclaimed water by 2010; 3) an aggressive conservation program, which would include such items as use of low flush toilets; 4) development of additional local groundwater supplies; 5) development of a seawater desalination plant; and 6) systems for transfers and exchanges. Under their Capital Improvements Program, the Authority would be building a new pipeline from Lake Skinner to the lower Otay reservoir; and additional emergency storage was being developed for relief in drought years or should there be a natural disaster. By the year 2000, the average monthly water bill would rise from $20.00 to $30.00 due to the costs of essential capital improvements. Supervisor Bilbray questioned whether the Authority felt the population projections were viable. SANDAG had never seen the type of realignment and economic situation that the cities, counties, and state would be facing over the next several decades. Much of the data had been prepared before the "crash" and did not take into effect many of the things that had happened within the last six months. It was a gnesstimate and should not be taken as gospel. Mr. Hess responded that SANDAG was reassessing the projections. The Authority was currently using both the Series 7 and Series 8 projections so they would have a range of projected water uses. Councilmember Rindone questioned the water usage in San Diego County for municipal and industrial uses. Mr. Hess responded that less than twenty percent went to agriculture, fifty percent to residential, with thirty percent to industrial uses. Keith Lewinger, General Manager, Otay Water District, stated the Districes job in supplying water to Otay Ranch was fairly simple, they needed to make sure the facilities were built so that when water was made available, the facilities would be in place to deliver it to the homes and businesses. He then summarized the role of the Otay Water District. The Otay Water District had been identified in the EIR as the preferred provider to Otay Ranch. The District was trying to develop an emergency storage program so they could sustain an outage of the County Water Authority's system for ten days. The way they were hoping to do that was to build five days storage in tanks and develop agreements with neighboring agencies to be able to get water from their treatment plants for an additional five days. The measures being taken by the District to ensure they met the water demand were: 1) demanding installation of dual distribution systems in all new development in the Otay Water District; 2) working to expedite the Otay River treatment plant; 3) using a landscape irrigation program wherein landscapers are allocated a supply of water, and penalized if their use exceeds the allocation; and 4) looking at groundwater development possibilities in the Otay River Valley, with an intent to use minimally treated water as an irrigation supply. New development was required to pay for facilities needed to supply water to the Otay Ranch, whereas existing customers were not required to do so. Councilmember Rindone requested a memo clarifying what portion of the statewide apportionment of water went to residential, municipal, and industrial uses. Supervisor Bilbray questioned how long Otay Ranch had been in the Otay Water District. Minutes January 21, 1993 Page 3 Mr. Lewinger responded that the parcels that were in the District had been in since formation in 1956. Property owners had paid an availability fee for property that was within one mile of the Districes facilities. It was only recently that any of the Otay Ranch had paid fees. Supervisor Bilbray stated there was an issue of the right of access if they were a member of the District. One of the things that concerned him was addressing planning rather than phasing. There was an issue of equal protection of the law. If there was a major issue with Otay Ranch, nothing should be built because there was no guarantee of water. Supervisor Jacob questioned each agency regarding sufficiency of water supply to the Otay Ranch project, whether they had adequate fire flow, and could supply existing residents. Mr. Buchanan stated that neither Metropolitan or anyone else could guarantee absolute water. They were not encouraging annexation but felt through the variety of systems they had in place and new systems that would be incorporated in the future they could service in a reliable fashion their service area. They were encouraging agriculture to reduce its consumption. Councilmember Rindone felt the efforts regarding water conservation needed to be pursued vigorously. Agriculture needed to realize they had a responsible role in conservation. Mr. Lewinger stated their job was to do their best to ensure that projected demands were met, but cautioned that they were almost totally reliant on others for their water supply. He could guarantee the existence of facilities to provide adequate fire protection. Land use decisions impacted the ultimate decision of a parcel but phasing was the critical portion. Until the pipeline was built by the summer of 1994 the mount of water that Otay could reasonably expect to be delivered through the existing pipeline was a limited mount, In 1989 the District Board adopted a policy to limit the amount of new connections they would allow to the district so that prior to 1994, when the new supply would become available, they would not exceed their existing supply. In 1989 and 1990 the allocation system was controlling grow'oh in eastern Chula Vista. Today, water was not controlling building permit issuance in Chula Vista, it was financing. Should something happen to the water supply system in the Metropolitan Water District or the County Water Authority, the Otay Water District would resume control of the number of new meters allowed to connect to their system in order to ensure that demand did not outstrip supply. Supervisor Bilbray stated if that was done, he hoped it would be in conjunction with the general purpose government that was providing the land use decision so that those meters would go where there was the most socio-economic benefit and least environmental impact. Mr. Hess stated the goal of the San Diego County Water Authority was to prevent shortages in excess of twelve percent in any critically dry year by 2010. Legislation was beginning to require conservation on the part of agriculture, and capital facilities were going into place to expedite delivery. Additional storage facilities would be in place in about the year 2000. Supervisor Jacobs questioned whether the Authority managed the water for the region. Mr. Hess responded that during the drought they had developed and implemented an allocation system, provided incentives to local agencies to develop conservation programs, stored water, etc. Supervisor .Iacobs questioned if the Water Authority had more authority if they could do a better job in managing the water resources for the region. Mr. Hess stated one of the Authority's problems was storage which was critical in managing available resources. They were addressing that through contracts with various agencies, but if they had more storage, and the ability to manage that storage, they could probably do a better job. Every one of the member Minutes January 21, 1993 Page 4 agencies were different and they needed to have the ability to manage their allocation, but the Authority did offer incentives and different programs. S. STATUS REPORT ON JOINT PLANNING COMMISSION WORKSHOPS Mr. Lettieri gave a brief status report on the Joint Planning Workshops. The Planning Commissions completed their workshops on 12/9/92, followed by second phase hearings. On 1/15/93, they were presented all of the materials on the Project and now had everything needed to reach a decision. Hearings were scheduled for the 27th and 29th of January, with a focus on public input. From then on, the project would be broken down into three major areas: 1) environmental resources; 2) land use (transit and circulation); and 3) capital facilities (fiscal aspect). It was expected the hearings would be completed by February. Supervisor Bilbray stated they were at the point where the tough issues had to be tackled. The major barriers he saw to approving the project were the traffic and air pollution impacts and circulation issues. He was concerned that staff really needed to look at the fact of what had happened to Otay Ranch in relationship to traffic impacts to the surrounding communities and suburbs, the impacts of what the City of San Diego had done on Oray Mesa and how that would affect the surrounding communities, and the numbers that were coming out of the Otay Ranch proposal. The numbers were scary coming out of the Otay Ranch proposal and were tied directly ro the City of San Diego's land use density that was identified in 1984. If the property owners, or the City of Chula Vista, thought they could continue to build in a pattern that had existed surrounding the area, he did not see how it would be viable environmentally and many other ways. He did not want the Ranch to bear the entire responsibility for the bad planning around them but those decisions could not be ignored. He cautioned that the reality of the final phaseout must be considered and an attempt made to balance fairness, equal access, and quality of life while staying within existing California law. Councilmember Moore felt both Planning Commissions had been adversely affected by the fact of what took place at a program level and what took place at a SPA level. If it were to be done over again, that would be the first handout he would distribute. The Ranch went overboard on the EIR and as people reviewed it they wanted everything at that level. Many things were not triggered until the SPA level. He agreed that traffic was probably the most critical issue. 6. ADJOURNMENT There being no further comments from the Council or Board, the Mayor adjourned the joint hearing to the next joint hearing scheduled on June 2, 1993 at 3:00 p.m. at the County Administration Center. Respectfully submitted, BEVERLY A. AUTHELET, CMC, City Clerk )