U.S. Water News Online
PHOENIX -- The Arizona Senate has approved and sent to the House a bill to allow counties and cities in rural areas of Arizona to restrict new home developments that lack assured long-term water supplies.
Under the bill, a county board of supervisors by unanimous vote could withhold approval of a final plan for a proposed subdivision if the project doesn't have an adequate water supply. A county's water-supply requirement would be binding on cities and towns in the county, but individual cities or towns in a county could impose the requirement if the county doesn't.
Dealing only with rural areas currently not part of the five so-called "active management areas" where developers must demonstrate 100-year water supplies for their projects, both bills would allow local governments to impose new restraints on development because of water supply concerns. Those five AMAs are centered on Phoenix, Tucson, Pinal County, Santa Cruz County and Prescott.
The bill (SB1575) is part of a package of legislation promoted by Gov. Janet Napolitano and her Water Resources Department as important for the state to handle its burgeoning population growth.
The Senate's 26-2 vote for the bill came one day after senators refused to amend the bill to make it easier for county boards of supervisors to impose the water-supply restrictions.
The rejected amendment would have deleted a requirement that county boards' votes be unanimous, not just a majority.
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