After nearly four hours of discussion steeped in concerns over water supplies, the Calistoga City Council decided to hold off on granting a water allocation to some projects at its Nov. 5 Calistoga City Council.

Calistoga water allocations have been a hot button issue since the growth management process was developed by the city nearly five years ago. The system is supposed to manage growth in Calistoga, based on the availability of resources, limiting it to about 1.35 percent population growth annually.

The system is perceived by some as the blanket approval of a project, which it is not, according to city officials. At the Nov. 5 meeting, the tone of discussion was set when Mayor Jack Gingles suggested the city delay approving water allocations until the state’s overall water availability levels for 2009 became clearer.

Gingles’ request — considered unusual by some — came barely one week after the state’s Department of Water Resources announced as much as 85 percent of the water it delivers to local suppliers could be cut.  This proposed cut would represent an additional 15 percent decrease in water supplies locally, on top of the 20 percent cut from last year’s allocation.

“We have a contract for the next three years, and that’s good,’ Gingles said. “But if the water isn’t there we might just as well have a 15-year contract.”

City Manager Jim McCann, however, said the state’s anticipated cut in water allocations is not unusual.

“Every year they estimate water supplies,” he said. “It usually starts off that they’ll supply about 20 percent demand at the beginning of the year, and it generally goes up from there.”

That’s what happened in 1993, the year of the state’s last big drought. According to some reports, that year the state had estimated it would only be able to supply something like 10 percent of the water it was contracted to deliver, but ended up delivering 100 percent of its allocations after a wet winter.

Other concerns raised during the meeting included giving water to certain projects, chiefly the Cottage Glen project proposed by Calistoga Affordable Housing. That project, some said, could not legally ask for water since the protesters believed the project was preparing a change in zoning request.

Calistoga Affordable Housing President Bob Fiddaman countered their concerns, stating that no change in zoning was being planned and none was needed for the project to advance along the planning stages.

Without the allocations at this point, he said, funding would be impossible to secure and the 30-single-family home project would be halted.

Ultimately, the City Council did approve some water allocation requests, but held off on others pending advice from the Calistoga City attorney. Only non-residential applicants were approved, including those filed by Yiota Patiris, J Kirk Feiereisen, William Shaw, Stover & Mitrovich, Upper Valley Ministries, Farris/Alverez, Brian Sereni, Jag Patel, Frank and Eugena Romeo and Corrine Sanders.

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