Water supply planning: housing developments

Cities and counties must start water-supply review earlier, and water systems face a 45-day deadline for specified housing projects. The law preserves water-supply analysis without turning it into discretionary or CEQA review for projects otherwise entitled to ministerial approval or exemption.

What the law does ​

• Requires cities and counties to identify potentially supplying public water systems when a qualifying housing preliminary application is filed, or when other covered development applications are complete or deemed complete.
• Requires cities and counties within 15 days to ask identified water systems whether the project's expected demand was included in their latest urban water management plan.
• Requires public water systems to submit water-supply assessments within 45 days for qualifying housing, ministerial multifamily, and streamlined housing projects; public-meeting approval is not required for these assessments.
• Lets cities and counties seek a court order compelling a water system to submit a required assessment.
• Requires assessments to address 20-year water availability, including normal and dry years, and to document supplies, rights, contracts, and relevant groundwater conditions.
• Requires an agency finding to state when projected supplies are insufficient, while clarifying that an assessment creates no right to water service.

Who it affects ​

• Housing developers submitting qualifying preliminary or complete development applications.
• Cities and counties reviewing covered housing and development projects.
• Public water systems that may serve proposed projects.
• Residents and existing water users whose supplies are considered in the assessment.

Context ​

The law does not subject otherwise ministerial or CEQA-exempt projects to discretionary review or CEQA merely because of the water-supply assessment.