Colorado River Commission & 7-States Meeting Inside Info: Arizona

Home Browse Search

A6 MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005 FROM THE FROUr PAGE ;;, THE ARIZONA REPUBLI Developers finding. ways around the law RURAL WATER Continued from Al sell. 'But it's a balancing act, a trade- off. Most people looking here want to have room. They want to not hear the people talking next door. Sometimes, it's a little more work, a little more ex- pense. But these people go there be- cause it feels good." Developers and landowners rou- tinely take advantage of Arizona's weak regulation of rural water and growth, resulting in the construction of hundreds and, eventually, thou - sandsof homes thatcouldn'tbebuiltin the state's major metropolitan areas. Those areas are covered by the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, which applies to about 20 percent of Arizona's geographic area, including Greater Phoenix and Tucson. In the rest of the state, less - stringent laws make it easy for individual landown- ers to build small subdivisions that rely on unmonitored, unproven wells and allow larger developers to sell homes without guaranteeing a long- term supply of water. The potential. for new growth to drain resources is significant: One prominent Las Vegas, home builder wants to develop five master - planned communities near Kingman; with more than 127,000 -new homes, they would double Mohave County's cur- rent population. That worries many people, who fear the demand on largely unknown water supplies and a failure to address the is- sue will crush growing communities. "The economic viability of rural Arizona is at risk if we don't do some- thing," said Rep. Thm O'Halleran, R- Sedona. Measuring the cost to rural commu- nities is difficult because the most se- rious consequences, water shortages Dr water -quality problems linked to a proliferation of septic tanks, may not surface for years. Meanwhile, most towns and counties encourage growth, just as their urban counter- parts do, but without the protection provided by groundwater laws. 'INADEQUATE WATER': Developers pay no heed The chief protection is the assured Nater- supply rule that is applied in Aaricopa, Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz ounties and in part of Yavapai County. It's a simple rule: Prove that a subdivision has access to a sustain - ible water source for 100 years or lon't build. That provision nearly didn't make it nto the 1980 laws but stands now as the most significant part of the code," aid Kathleen Ferris, an attorney and ormer legislative staff member who ielped write the laws and revisited the ssue last year for the Arizona Policy orum, a Phoenix -based research and .ducation group. It makes good sense, ,he said, and protects home buyers. In rural Arizona, builders still must ubmit plans to the state Department if Water Resources for a determina- ion of whether the water supplies vould last 100 years. The difference is, f the state finds the proposed source nadequate, builders can ignore the inding and build anyway. And they do. A review of state recordsby The Ari- ona Republic found that 60, or 35 per - :ent, of 171 applications processed by he state's Assured and Adequate Wa- er Supply Office since 2001 were re- amed to the applicant with an "inade- Iuate water supply" finding. There sere more than 4,100 prospective tomes included in these applications. n 2004 alone, 45 percent of the pro- asals lacked proof of a long -term wa- er supply. Yet most of the projects proceeded ,r will go ahead. That doesn't mean here won't be water when the homes gyre built or that the wells won't flow for Attached was this note: "I am apply- ing for the letter to show the water sup- ply to be'inadequate.' I am advising all purchasers that this is a water -haul area, that the water for wells is too deep to- even consider digging." The sales brochure includes this informa- tion, as does the public report issued by the Real Estate Department. "Some developers create their own water companies. I don't," Freeman said in an interview. "I spend many thousands of dollars bringing in power. That's the hard part." Nearby communities or private wa- ter companies will likely expand if sub- divisions begin to fill in, he said. In the meantime, water - filling stations and hauling companies can supply resi- dents. But it's not the 500 -lot subdivisions like Lake Mead Ranchos that will put resources at risk; it's the 10,000 homes that could be built just outside the Prescott city limits and the hundreds, if not thousands, of proposed homes near Chino Valley, Cottonwood and un- incorporated areas near Sedona. Co- chise County officials expect a similar burst of development near Benson. And nothing so far compares with what may happen in Mohave County, where as many as 200,000 homes could be built over several decades. One rea- son for the rush is the shortage of avail- able land on the Nevada side of the Colorado River. Developers want to build bedroom communities for people willing to commute to Las Vegas. Mohave County Planner Kevin Da- vidson said it's possible there won't be as many homes built as lots sold. Some people are buying land as an invest- ment, and he suspects many lots will remain vacant indefinitely. But there are other projects in the county that proven developers are planning: ■ Las Vegas -based Leonard Mar - dian won approval from Mohave County to build a 21,000 -acre master- planned community in the White Hills area northwest of Kingman. Almost 35,000 homes for more than 80,000 peo- ple could be built. E Rhodes Homes, another Las Vegas builder, filed plans for five mas- ter- planned communities, varying in size from about 9,500 homes to more than 46,000. In all, the company wants to build 127,874 homes, mostly be- tween Kingman and a new bridge that will span the Colorado River below Hoover Dam. The state has not yet determined whether these projects have adequate water. Rhodes hired Arizona's former chief hydrologist, Greg Wallace, to help prove that the area can sustain the new homes, businesses and golf courses. Some • earlier studies suggested there are significant reserves in the area, but the state maintains that not enough information is available to know for sure. "There's not a lot of data up there," said Tom Whitmer, water resources planning manager for the Department of Water Resources. "That makes it difficult. We don't know a lot about the depth of the water yet." WILDCAT SUBDIVISIONS: A way to bypass zoning laws Planned subdivisions that undergo a review give state and local officials some idea of what to expect as new homes are built. "Wildcat subdivi- sions," which legally exploit a loop- hole• in the law to avoid reviews and zoning laws, offer no such hints. Those. subdivisions, small developments that are built when parcels are split into five or fewer lots, have flourished in rural Arizona, from Pima and Co- chise counties up through Yavapai and Mohave counties. From a planner's or water manag- er's perspective, wildcat projects, or "lot splits" as they are known, can be a greater threat to resources than subdi- In "wildcat subdivisions," like this one north of Prescott Valley, land is split over and over again, avoiding zoning WILDCAT SUBDIVISIONS So they sell 5 lots, and so on, and so on... "Wildcat subdivisions" allow builders to avoid zoning laws. In many,rural areas state law allows a property to be divided into many as five lots before subdivision regulations apply. To get around requirements for streets, utilities, water systems and o+ infrastructure, the land is subdivided repeatedly in steps. How it works: I%Saysomeone ®Individual land- ®Those Q Minimum lot I Because these 250 pieces . buys a 640 -acre owners can divide owners then sizes vary but are not subdivisions under the law, the owner section of land. their 128 -acre lots split their usually about 2 may find themselves responsible for wate That owner into five pieces. parcels five acres. So each septic tank, power lines and even maintai divides it into The original square ways. Now parcel can be stretches of road. The law generally requii five 128 -acre mile is now 25 lots there are 125 divided at least one the seller to disclose those things to a buy lots and sells of just over 25 lots of slightly more time before But after the initial sale of a single parcel, 'four to other acres each. Lots are more than 5 building, resulting lack of a long -term water supply legally d(