MINUTES OF THE WATER PLANNING COMMITTEE
October 19 , 2005
CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
Chair Haddad, called the Water Planning Committee meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. Committee members present were, Vice Chair Lewinger and Watton, and Directors Linden, Martin, Pocklington, Quist, Rogers, Saunders and Sundram. Committee members absent were Directors Dixon, Irvin, Loveland, and Rhinerson. Also present were Directors Bond, Croucher, Dailey, Johnson, Knutson, Lewanski, Muir, Price, Steiner and Williams. At that time, there was a quorum of the committee. Staff present was General Counsel Hentschke, Deputy General Manager Lanspery, Director of Water Resources Weinberg, Principal Water Resources Specialist Friehauf and Rate & Debt Administrator Delin.
CHAIRS REPORT
Chair Haddad welcomed and thanked the committee for participating in the special meeting. He stated the committee was assigned the important task of drafting annexation policies for the Water Authority and Board consideration. The Water Authority currently had administrative procedures for processing annexations, but no specific Board policies, which the committee was tasked to develop. At a recent workshop, the committee received background information on the Water Authority’s annexation procedure and an excellent presentation from three of the member agencies on potential annexations that they were handling and associated issues.
The special committee meeting would include staff’s response to two of the questions raised at the workshop: 1) annexation policies of other agencies in the state; and 2) derivation of the Water Authority’s annexation charge. The last item on the agenda was to begin to address some of the initial policy questions raised at the workshop.
Chair Haddad stated that the Board understood that requests to annex territory to the Water authority would be coming more frequently, were larger in size, and it was the committee’s task to recommend the policies to be in place to deal with these requests.
REPORT ON ANNEXATION POLICIES/PROCEDURES OF OTHER WATER AGENCIES WITHIN CALIFORNIA
Principal Water Resources Specialist Friehauf presented the initial research on annexation policies of other agencies. Those agencies included Metropolitan Water District, Calleguas Municipal Water District, East Bay Municipal Utility District and Contra Costa Water District.
The committee held lengthy discussions on rates and charges including annexation fees, assessments, and capacity charges. A summation of additional items of discussion were:
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majority of landowners approval needed for annexations
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exclusion of AG and IAWP deliveries in annexed area
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MWD’s definition of sufficient size
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definition of “windows” and “islands”
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Water Authority’s sphere of influence
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concurrent annexations to the Water Authority, MWD, and member agencies
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addressing annexations in the Water Authority Administrative Code
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challenges to the Water Authority’s annexation policies
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declined/denied annexations
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MWD water use efficiency guidelines
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environmental compliance
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annexation of Sovereign Tribal lands
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SB610 and 221 compliances
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Specific policy on formation of new member agency annexations
CALCULATION OF THE WATER AUTHORITY’S ANNEXATION CHARGE
Mr. Delin briefed the Committee on the purpose of the annexation charge that calculated a fair buy-in to the Water Authority’s infrastructure, that was paid for by existing and previous ratepayers. He also discussed the pre-1983 history and the history from 1983 – 2004, along with calculation of the charges.
Interim Board Actions on annexation requests prior to formal adoption of policy.
Ms. Friehauf stated staff had selected some priority questions to be initially addressed by the Committee. Those questions were selected in anticipation of receiving annexation requests prior to finalizing a comprehensive policy. The list of potential near-term annexations to the Water Authority included San Luis Rey Municipal Water District, Meadowood Development, Otay Ranch Resort, Salvation Army Campground and Sycuan Indian Reservation. The first annexation would be in spring 2006. She reviewed the suggested priority questions on annexations which included current limitations on treated water deliveries, the impact on water reliability, conservation and recycled water requirements, and Board preferences on type of annexation (new district vs. existing district), and the health and safety of existing homes outside the Water Authority’s area.
Mr. Weinberg addressed the topics of conditions on annexations relative to timing of facilities, bringing on new users and the level of service to existing users. He also spoke on the current limitations on treated water deliveries and posed the question as to how would the Water Authority guarantee that allowing annexations would not impact water reliability, both raw and treated deliveries, and should a condition of annexation and providing service be related to the timing of completion of necessary facilities and supply development.
Mr. Weinberg referred to issues that arose during the Board workshop and stated that some issues were more pressing than others. The pressing issues were: 1) should there be a condition on annexations role to timing of facilities so that bringing new users on did not diminish the level of service to existing users, and a specific example brought up by Director Lewinger was on treated water deliveries; 2) should the annexation be on the condition that no service would be provided before April 2008 when the Twin Oaks Valley Plant came online; 3) if so did the Water Authority want to condition annexations to expand that concept to supply; 4) should the Water Authority adopt conditions related to water conservation and set specific terms and conditions related to the annexing territory or should the member agency.
The next steps for staff would be to continue to conduct research on annexation policies of other agencies based on the priority topics and discussions. Staff would report back to the committee with potential policies for consideration by the Board and strikeout “as an interim measure” from the annexation guidelines and policies. Staff would seek additional Board guidance on development of comprehensive policies for long-term use in evaluating requests for annexations and seek additional committee direction to staff.
Adjournment
There being no further business to come before the Water Planning Committee, Chair Haddad adjourned the meeting at 3:10 p.m.
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Ben Haddad
Chair, Water Planning Committee
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