“Why are we continuing to build and we’re in a drought? I got my water bill today and it said ‘drought alert.’ Why would the city allow people to keep building houses so they can spread what little water we have for the community members who live here to use? As a tax paying community member, I’m not happy about that. If we’re in a drought, don’t add more people. We need to get some fresh people in there making the decisions. They need to halt all that building.”
Red Phone:
Red Phone decided to call the City of Gilroy Planning Division about this question, and spoke to Planning Manager Susan Martin. The Planning Division is responsible for approving both planning permits and building permits.
“The approval of permits depends heavily on the engineering reviews of the Engineering Division headed by the Public Works Director Rick Smelser,” Martin said. Smelser pointed Red Phone to the minutes of the Aug. 4 City Council meeting, when the Council declared Level 1 Water Supply Shortage Conditions exist for Gilroy, requiring an 11 to 20 percent water reduction. Level 1 emergency water shortage measures were to be implemented immediately.
However, at this level, no building permit limits are included in the measures, meaning new building permits will not necessarily be affected by the drought. Building permit limits are imposed only when a Level 3 Water Supply Shortage (36 to 50 percent reduction) is declared by the City.
Regarding the drought, Martin said, “Whether or not Gilroy is in a drought, engineering also takes into consideration water-related requirements such as water-saving landscape design, proximity of recycled water sources, etc. when performing its review of building permits.”
Red Phone is heartened that the City of Gilroy is managing the drought, and concerned citizens are asking questions.
