During its Dec. 10 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council approved a long-term water-management plan and authorized a request-for-proposals for a consultant to help develop State-required additional housing.
Water plan
After conducting a public hearing, the council unanimously adopted an Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) that Public Works Director Kelli Tunnicliff will submit to the State Department of Water Resources, as required by law.
Management Analyst Sara Russo explained that because Signal Hill is now delivering water to over 3,000 retail customers, the State requires it to submit a UWMP detailing the City’s viability as a long-term supplier of water, as per the 1983 California Urban Water Management Plan Act.
Russo explained that the City hired AKM Consulting Engineers to prepare its UWMP for the State’s current 2015-2020 period. The City will need to submit another report by July 1, 2021 for the State’s next 20-year planning cycle.
AKM’s comprehensive 69-page UWMP report evaluates the city’s water-delivery systems, water uses, supply sources, efficiencies, demand-management and contingency plans for water shortages, as per State guidelines.
The UWMP shows that the City projects a stable annual supply of water over the next 20 years from 2,300 acre-feet of importable water from the Municipal Water District (MWD) and 2,022 acre-feet from its groundwater aquifer.
Though the City can purchase water from the MWD, the report shows that it has only imported an average of 18% of its needed supply over the past 18 years, with 82% coming from its groundwater wells.
“The Central Groundwater Basin is considered a very reliable source of water, even during dry years,” the UWMP states. “This is due to the strict limits on groundwater extractions, multiple projects that replenish the basin, adequate funding of the replenishment activities from revenue generated by the replenishment assessment placed on extractions and sufficient storage within the basin.”
Signal Hill’s available supply of water exceeds demand through 2040, the report shows, even with a projected demand growth of about 3% every five years and contingencies for dry years.
Russo said the UWMP also includes water-use targets in order for the City to qualify for state grants and loans, per the Water Conservation Act of 2009 passed with Senate Bill X7-7.
That Act requires water suppliers such as Signal Hill to achieve a 10% reduction in per-capita water use by 2015 and 20% reduction by 2020, relative to 2000-2009 averages, Russo said. In 2015, the city consumed 142 gallons of water per person per day, exceeding its target of 177 gallons.
“Provided customers continue with current water-usage patterns, the city is on track to meet or exceed its 2020 water-use target [of 157 gallons] in the future,” Russo said.
The UWMP also notes that in the event of a catastrophic water-supply disruption, the City has an emergency plan to provide residents with potable water at parks and retail outlets.
Separately, the City is planning to increase its water rates to ensure that its water system continues to meet demand in the long term, according to the staff report. The council will conduct a Proposition 218-protest hearing on Jan. 14, 2020 to consider community input on the proposed rate increases.
Councilmember Edward Wilson asked staff whether the UWMP water-usage analysis affected the City’s proposed water-rate increases. Tunnicliff said that staff based the water-rate increase targets on the currently low 142 gallons-per-capita usage.
“We don’t expect water usage to decrease significantly below that,” Tunnicliff said. “We built our water-rate model based on the current level of conservation.”
Mayor Lori Woods asked staff to examine how many more acre-feet of groundwater the City can extract to accommodate its growth.
“Especially in the light of potential housing requirements coming down from the State, can we even service the number of units that the State potentially may require us to bill?” she asked. “When would be maxed out with our pumping rights?”
[See related story: Signal Hill grappling with long-term water and additional-housing plans]
New housing
The council also voted to address that need for additional housing by authorizing a request-for-proposals (RFP) to be issued on Jan. 6, 2020 for a consultant to help the City prepare for the State’s the next round of required new dwelling units.
Newly-appointed Director of Community Development Colleen Doan said the City will pay for the consultant’s services with a $160,000-planning grant from the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) out of Senate Bill 2 (SB2)-Planning Grants Program (PGP) funds.
“This is the first funding the State has made available to local governments for the purpose of accelerated housing production since the demise of [the] Redevelopment [Agency],” Doan said. “The funding is to be used toward increasing the supply of housing in meeting the upcoming 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment.”
The State requires Signal Hill to add 516 additional dwelling units over that next cycle, which runs from June 30, 2021 to Oct. 15, 2029. The City must submit a plan to the State by Oct. 15, 2021 for meeting that requirement.
The HCD told the City last week that it has preliminary approval of the funds, Doan said.
“We want to issue the RFP now so that we are immediately prepared to select our consultants once funding is approved,” she added.
Economic Development Manger Elise McCaleb noted that the other 191 regional cities may also search for consultants in anticipation of getting those planning funds so the City would like to secure one in advance.
The consultant will help identify potential housing sites as well as draft an accessory-dwelling unit (ADU) ordinance, which the City does not have, and modify its density-bonus ordinance (DBO), Doan said. A DBO allows a developer to increase the number of units on one site according to different income levels.
“If the developer would like to develop with a higher density and maybe get some relief of some of the other requirements– sometimes parking, sometimes setbacks– then certain numbers of the units will be ‘affordable,’ will be ‘workforce,’ [or] will be ‘low-income,’” Doan explained.
Other consultants will analyze any potential new sites for livability given that they may have abandoned oil wells, Doan added.
Regionally, the State’s new Reginal Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) requirement calls for 1.3 million additional dwelling units. Signal Hill’s share of that is more than three times its previous allocation of 169 new units across four different income levels, Doan had stated at the previous council meeting on Nov. 12, when the council approved the planning-grant application.
The City has built 120 new units since 2014, needing to still complete 8 in the “moderate” income level and 41 in the “above-moderate” income category by next year, Doan had noted.
“The City has met 100% of its required RHNA allocation for very-low- and low-income housing units,” Doan said. “The Zinnia workforce housing is the most recent housing project developed under this cycle.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave.
