AgdaPkt 2004-01-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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5.' c - Z. The necessity to prepare this WSA comes at a time when the City Council has taken actions regarding water supply - which was identified by the City Council as one of their top priorities for 2002-2004. The City has developed plans for a recycled water treatment, storage, pumping and distribution system that will serve high quality water to existing and future water users for landscape irrigation and various industrial uses. This system could provide a means of meeting water demands that would otherwise have to be met from potable water sources. Th,' recycled water system is described in an engineering feasibility report previously revi~wed and accepted by the City Council: Water Recycling Feasibility Study for Redwood 'Jity, by Kennedy Jenks Consultants, August 7, 2002. Attachment 'E' to the WSA includes excerpts from the executive summary of the August 7, 2002 final report, presenting the consultant's recommended project, estimated project costs, implementation strategy and schedule for implementation. The recommended project could, at full utilization, deliver up to 2,000 AF/Y by 201 0, thereby reducing demand on the San Francisco regional water system. On August 11, 2003 the City Council approved a broadly-defined recycled water project and directed the City Clerk to file a Notice of Determination with the County Clerk and the State of California. Attachment 'F' of the WSA includes the staff report and Resolution No. 14547 from the August 11 Council meeting. At the same meeting, the City Council decided that before they give further direction to implement a recycled water project, they would appoint a 20-member community task force for the purpose of exploring alternative ways the project might deliver recycled water, and considering options for delaying or avoiding using recycled waterfor irrigation of playgrounds and school grounds. The Task Force has been meeting regularly since October, and with the assistance of the Council-appointed facilitator and the City Manager, is scheduled to make recommendations to the City Council in March 2004. Staff anticipates that the City will move into the design phase of the project by the summer of 2004. This WSA determines that the City of Redwood City does not currently have sufficient water supply to meet the projected water demands of the proposed Bayside Gardens Project together with those of its existing customers as well as the demands of other planned development. However, if the City is able to implement plans for additional supplies through an increasingly aggressive water conservation program in concert with a recycled water project that is sensitive to the concerns in the community, there should be sufficient water supply to meet projected future demands. As this WSA points out, Redwood City's supply reliability now and into the future is a key factor in this determination. The WSA, including the information regarding plans for acquiring additional supplies, shall be included in the environmental document prepared for the project. In the case of the Bayside Gardens Project, it will be included in the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), currently in preparation. Once the WSA has been prepared, it must be approved by the City Council. It should be noted that the City Council's action in approving a WSA for a proposed development project is not an approval or disapproval of the project itself, in part or in whole. Nor is consideration of this WSA a discussion on the merits of, or objections to, the proposed development. As of this date, the draft EIR for the proposed development has yet to be released for public comment, so this determination is very early in the sequence of development review steps. Thus the Council's action should be narrow in its focus on the sufficiency of water supply. 2 of 3