February 22, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Each development now can receive 50 building permits each year. The recommendation would cut that to 30 permits.

            Larger developments, such as Bowling Green and Stonegate at St. Andrews, which have been allocated 100 permits a year because of considerations such as dedication of greenways, would similarly see their allocation cut to 60 permits.

            The recommendation did not address how to deal with any future subdivision requests such as a rumored development on the remaining Holding farm land.

            The objective Tuesday was to cut the number of permits this year from the possible 1,396 in already approved developments to 850 because the town is facing a water crisis.

            Raleigh owns the water and sewer systems, and the merger agreement signed last year specifies the city will provide no more than 4.9 million gallons a day, based on the one-day peak use. That number includes a million gallons the town purchased for $3 million as part of the merger agreement.

            This past summer the peak use was 3.79 mgd, leaving only 1.1 mgd to last until April 1, 2010, when the allocation will increase by 4 percent.

            As Planning Director Chip Russell told the town board during its annual January retreat, that 1.1 mgd translates into water for 3,200 new homes between now and 2010 or about 800 building permits a year. Commercial development, which is not usually a high water user, is not affected. Town policy is to encourage commercial and industrial development.

            The town has issued about 1,000 permits for residences in each of the past two years – 1,069 in 2004 when permits for two apartment complexes were issued and 964 in 2005. At that rate the available water would be used up in 2008.

            In January the town issued permits for 66 single-family homes.

            Along with cutting back the rate of growth – “throttling” was the term Commissioner David Camacho used – Russell said another tactic the town can use to reduce the amount of water used could be to reduce lawn irrigation. In some subdivisions such as Stonegate an in-ground irrigation system is automatically built with the house.

            “You’ve got a critical mass of irrigation systems that have skewed your peak,” Russell said. He suggested instituting a system of alternate-day watering for the systems. “It has worked in other places. People learn to do it.”

            Another tactic is to encourage commercial and large residential subdivisions to drill wells for their irrigation, and Russell said his department encourages builders to do so. “If you guys make that mandatory, that’s easy.”

            “I believe most builders would rather have more houses than irrigation systems,” Camacho said, suggesting a system where builders could build more houses in a year in an individual development if they installed irrigation systems that used rainwater and cisterns or wells.

            “If we drop our peak [use], then we can support more building,” Camacho said.

            Commissioner Frank Drake suggested creating a disincentive to installing irrigation systems by increasing the cost of permits.

            “With houses costing $350,000 and up, what’s an extra $10,000 among friends?” Camacho asked. A builder, he said the cost of an irrigation system including permits would be close to $10,000.

            Planning board member Kim Parker said he would like to see a rating system similar to that on water heaters and other appliances indicating average use, in this case use of water. A homeowner looking at similar houses would choose. “Labeling pushes this onto the consumer.”

            Camacho said the faster method would be for the builders to agree to use only rainwater or wells for irrigation. “It would not take as many years as homeowners deciding what they are going to use.”

            He said he would like to see any system to get water “without pulling it from Falls Lake.”

            Falls is still about a foot below its normal level of 151.5 feet above mean sea level, and the town, along with everyone else in Raleigh’s water system, is still under stage two mandatory water conservation measures. Those measures include limiting lawn watering to twice weekly.

            The lake has been slow to fill since last summer when there were drought conditions. The city’s web site says the National Weather Service reported on Feb. 8 an average rainfall deficit since Jan. 1, 2005 of 7.8 inches. That includes this year’s deficit of 2.3 inches.

            Drake’s motion to cut the number of permits to 60 percent also included revisiting the issue in July or August.

            The committee’s recommendation will be taken up by the town board during its work session on March 7 and then will be on the agenda for the regular meeting on March 21. “The quicker the builders know, the better they’re going to like it,” Parker said.

            Russell said he would go down the list of active subdivisions, asking builders what they really intend to build this year as opposed to what they could build based on their allocation.

            The CPC is composed of four members, two commissioners and two planning board members. Planning board chairman Bob Hill was absent Tuesday.

            Camacho, the CPC chairman, said the committee would be meeting on a regular basis every fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at The Forks Cafeteria because it was assigned so many projects during the retreat. The meetings are open to the public.