Leavenworth tightens review of water requests outside city growth area

LEAVENWORTH —The City of Leavenworth is taking steps to clarify the process and requirements for reviewing requests for city water service outside the Urban Growth Area (UGA).

During its regular Aug. 11 meeting, the Leavenworth City Council approved amendments to Leavenworth Municipal Code 14.14.100, Water Supply Standards, in an effort to better address the recent number of requests for connection that the city has received this year.

Prior to the changes, code allowed for water connections outside of the UGA to be authorized by the city administrator when need is demonstrated, or by the Leavenworth City Council. However, only three Equivalent Residential Units (ERUs) may be granted outside the UGA per calendar year; the code does not clarify what point in the process a water connection counts towards the annual limit.

Under the recent amendments, approval of all connections outside the UGA have to be approved by city council; connections must be completed within a certain timeline after receiving authorization; council may approve a one-time, one-year extension of the permit due to hardship; connections are counted toward the annual limit on the date the city council authorizes the connection.

More amendments are anticipated as the city continues to bolster more rigid hardship criteria in an effort to clarify requirements for both staff and applicants. The Leavenworth City Council is also interested in removing the annual limit of three authorizations in an effort to avoid unintentionally restricting applicants with legitimate hardships.

“I think the point of the robust criteria is to keep the numbers down, and the city council wants to protect the city's ERUs…But if you meet that condition and you literally have no other way of developing water to your residence, why would we say no to that?” said Councilmember Anne Hessburg during the discussion. “We're not going to be giving these away willy-nilly.”

Finance Director Chantell Steiner said she remembered the limit was originally put in place to protect the water supply for residents in city limits around a time when applications were exploding. 

“I think there was just a lot of uncertainty, and there was fear,” said Steiner. “We put in a water moratorium connection because there were so many applications in 2007 that we were going to run out of water rights for all the condos that were submitted, and then the recession happened.”

While council members were confident in the city’s current supply, the context posed discussion over the importance of having safeguards in place to ensure allocations did not exceed reserves.

“Our water system plan gets updated on a relatively regular interval…and there is an entire component in there about what our capacity is, and what our allowable connections are. And then the Department of Health does regulate our number of connections,” said Public Works Director Andi Zontek-Backstrum.

The city council plans to continue workshopping potential revisions to the code in future study sessions.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media