Water cuts stall new projects

The Town of Windsor has placed a temporary hold on new
residential development due to concerns the Town may not have
access to enough water to supply new homes.
Windsor limits the number of residential housing units that can
be built per year and projects compete for a housing allocation
during the Town’s “merit process.” Projects that have yet to begin
construction but that have secured housing units can still build
but proposals that seek to add new housing units to the development
pipeline will have to wait a year before receiving town
approval.
The Town of Windsor has enough water to meet its current needs
and allow for growth. However, Town staff believe the Sonoma County
Water Agency could cut the amount of water sent to the Town by up
to 25 percent. As Windsor currently uses about 80 percent of its
total water resources, staff said the Town could continue to
support itself with a reduced allocation, however, there would not
be enough water to support growth.
Staff asked for and received a temporary halt to approval of new
housing projects of up to a year to study the implications of water
reductions and form a plan.
“That’s the problem in trying to grow when we’re not certain of
the water,” said Planning and Building Director Peter Chamberlin.
“We’re not saying we don’t have it, we’re saying we need more time
to analyze the situation.”
The Town currently has about 1,200 residential units approved
for development and Town staff are now in the process of contacting
developers to establish the status of their projects. If any
projects were to be withdrawn from the pipeline, the council could
reassign their water usage to other projects.
“The council also set a task of the planning department of
contacting people in the pipeline and seeing where they are,” said
Chamberlin. “We may be able to determine, voluntary or otherwise,
that projects are not interested in going forward and we could put
that water back in the bucket so to speak.”
While evaluating the possible water cuts, the council were also
evaluating a pair of requests for additional housing units from the
Windsor Mill and Windsor Creekside developments. The revised
Windsor Mill project, located several blocks from the Town Green
requested an additional 70 housing units, bringing to total up to
270. The project already had an agreement with the town for 201
units and while the council said the project had merit enough to
continue in the Town’s approval process, approval of the new units
were put on hold due to the uncertainty over water.
Windsor Creekside Village asked for 179 residential units and
65,000 square feet of commercial space.
Richard Deringer spoke on behalf of the project. He said the
development could break ground almost immediately and could follow
through on its potential including providing free electric cars to
residents. “Too many projects have promised things to this town and
others that aren’t economically viable.”
He said his project could bring an additional element to
Windsor. “What’s missing in this town is stand alone commercial
buildings with attorneys and accountants that will bring jobs and
people to this town.”
The Town Council disagreed with the potential benefits of the
project and denied the request for housing units. Councilmember
Robin Goble said the project was too far from downtown Windsor and
said she didn’t know if all the promised benefits make it into the
final project. “It promises lots of bells and whistles,” she said.
“It has everything but magic beans right now.”
While the residential portion of Windsor Creekside was vetoed,
the developer can still build commercial space. “They could
alternate their strategy and do standalone commercial. The whole
site is zoned gateway commercial,” said Chamberlin.