By Justin George
Camera Staff Writer

LAFAYETTE — The city's water restrictions will slow home building this year. But they will not stop it.

City officials estimated in January that 296 homes could be built in Lafayette this year. But projections are expected to fall short because of a ban on water taps for new homes and a still-sagging economy, officials said.

The City Council passed an emergency ordinance May 21 which forces residents to cut outdoor water use by 75 percent. It also included several other rules, including the ban on the issuance of water taps, to help the drought-plagued city make it through the year with enough water.

Lafayette, which officials say could run out of water by November because of a vanishing snowpack, is the first Boulder County city to restrict new water taps in an effort to save water.

Some projects in Lafayette are exempt from the water-tap restriction because they have been granted property rights by the city that can't be violated or have "contractual obligations" that the city must fulfill, Lafayette spokeswoman Alexandra Lynch said.

She said developers that are exempt have until Saturday to let city officials know how many water taps they will use this year. So far, no developers have given the city estimates, Lynch said.

Todd Alexander, project entitlements manager for McStain Neighborhoods of Boulder, the developer of Lafayette's 1,442-home Indian Peaks neighborhood, said his company plans to obtain water taps for the construction of as many as 55 homes this year.

McStain, which has already built 1,200 homes in Indian Peaks, is exempt from the city's water-tap restrictions.

Alexander said the new homes will not be a strain on the city's weak water supply this year because they will not be landscaped, nor will they come with sprinkler systems.

"People won't be moving into those homes until early next year," he said.

A handful of small affordable housing projects will probably be affected by the city's restrictions, but Lafayette's largest planned affordable housing complex will not.

Jim Liles, executive director of the Boulder County Housing Authority, said the county agency does not plan to buy any water taps this year for the Lafayette senior housing complex, which is planned to begin construction in 2003 near the Bob L. Burger Recreation Center and the First Union neighborhood.

The project's first phase will include as many as 20 new homes. Liles said the campus plans might be affected next year if water-tap restrictions stay the same.

Lafayette was one of the first cities in Colorado to impose mandatory restrictions on water use. Boulder and Louisville have also passed mandatory water restrictions.

Boulder, which has passed a less restrictive water law, is not yet considering a moratorium on water taps within city limits. However, the city will not grant water-tap requests from applicants outside city limits until the drought's end.

Longmont officials said they won't restrict the issuance of water taps unless drought conditions dry up 80 percent of the city's water supply.

Camera Staff Writers Greg Avery and Kate Larsen contributed to this report. Contact Justin George at (303) 473-1359 or georgej@thedailycamera.com.

May 29, 2002

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