As part of the City of Santa Monica’s strategy to achieve water self-sufficiency by 2020, the city council recently adopted the Water Neutrality Ordinance, which caps water use for developments to the historical five-year average for the site. Keeping water usage at today’s level, the lowest since the early 1990s, will help the community better manage its limited groundwater supplies and the uncertain effects of climate change, according to a news release by the city.
The ordinance will go into effect on July 1, 2017. All projects in plan check, or that have received a building permit before June 30, 2017, will not need to comply with the new law.
The water neutrality ordinance does not allow new residential and commercial developments and new or enlarged pools, spas, water features, and ponds to exceed the historical water use for the site. The city offered an example of what water neutrality looks like: If a proposed mixed-use development is projected to use 400,000 gallons of water each year and the historical use on the parcel is 150,000 gallons a year, the new development would have to offset 250,000 gallons each year. The ordinance does not apply to kitchen and/or bathroom remodels or minor renovations.
The means to get to water neutrality is through the installation of water-efficient fixtures and systems on-site. If this isn’t possible, and the building doesn’t comply with the law, the additional water use must be offset elsewhere in the community. The city will provide a fee-based turnkey retrofit program and/or the applicant can install retrofits at their own cost in sites selected by the applicant.
A consultant will provide design assistance to educate new development applicants about the various water saving devices and systems, such as greywater systems, recirculating hot water systems, irrigation systems, toilets, etc., that would help achieve compliance. For projects required to offset water use, fees will be charged to cover the city’s cost to achieve the offsets.
