The Bolinas Community Public Utility District board has amended a policy governing water meter transfers to add flexibility for properties managed by the local land trust or otherwise restricted for affordable housing. In a 4:1 vote, the board approved the resolution earlier this month after a series of discussions.
The Bolinas Community Land Trust petitioned for the amendment, which will allow it to request that the board swap water allowances between properties it owns and to have more than one water meter per property. The policy change paves the way for a multi-family, multi-use project planned for 31 Wharf Road, a hillside lot next to Smiley’s Schooner Saloon.
The district board member who opposed the change, Vic Amoroso, said it “opens up a whole can of worms.”
“I would really like to study it more, to fully understand the impacts of this,” he said at the Jan. 15 meeting where the board approved the change. “I think that the allowances apply to the property, not to the meter. Meters come and go, but the property stays.”
A water moratorium that the BCPUD has upheld since the district declared a water shortage in 1971 has one key tenet: a finite number of water meters. That restriction has effectively limited development in town, considering that any new construction must be paired with an existing meter.
BCPUD can also cap the amount of water allocated per meter, such as when a property owner makes changes that require county permits; new development is usually capped at 224 gallons per day. The average water use per connection throughout the district is 150 gallons a day.
Although the board has permitted the transfer of water meters at times in the past, it had never before been asked to transfer water allowances and members determined it was necessary to amend policies to allow it.
Overriding Mr. Amoroso’s concerns, the board voted to make an exception for properties owned or managed by the land trust and for other properties deed-restricted for affordable housing. The resolution allows individuals and nonprofits that own two properties under consideration to swap water allocations. It also permits the use, or “stacking,” of more than one meter per property.
“The [resolution] did not do anything to change the moratorium,” board member Lyndon Comstock told the Light after the meeting. “It’s really just a question of allowing more flexibility for the use of the water meters for affordable housing.”
The changes will allow the land trust to orchestrate a reshuffling of water meters that will make possible the development planned for 31 Wharf Road.
Now, the trust may ask BCPUD to transfer the water allocation for the Gibson House—where tenants use much less water than is allotted—to 31 Wharf. The Gibson House, now affordable housing owned by the land trust, used to be a restaurant, and its high allotment of 1,126 gallons a day was grandfathered in. But the tenants use approximately 328 gallons a day.
To meet water needs at the Gibson House, the trust could transfer the meter from 31 Wharf, which has the standard allocation of 224 gallons a day, and stack it with another standard meter it owns that is not attached to a property.
But those moves are neither set in stone nor imminent, said Arianne Dar, the trust’s executive director. It may be possible to drill a well at 31 Wharf, Ms. Dar said, in which case it may make sense to use the high water allocation given to the Gibson House for a different project, such as the trust’s planned development on Mesa Road, which will likely also need more water. The new resolution offers her this flexibility.
“I’m glad the BCPUD has decided to grant this exception and to recognize the importance of affordable housing,” Ms. Dar told the Light last week. “No one wants to break the water moratorium in any way. But there may need to be further revisions to make sure that we can sustain a permanent community here.”
Now that the trust has an avenue to obtain enough water for 31 Wharf, it can move forward with its application for a coastal permit. The project includes two complexes comprised of four 1,350-square-foot, three-bedroom units, four 945-square-foot, two-bedroom units and two commercial spaces at the street level.
For Mr. Amoroso, affordable housing is important, but the trust’s plans for 31 Wharf are “over the top.” He argued that although neither the number of water meters nor the total amount of water allocated in BCPUD’s water system would change were the trust to ask for swap meters, the actual water use will.
“It will affect use, and that’s in a town that has a water moratorium based on water supply,” he said.
This story was corrected on Feb. 5.