Local developers offer to solve Stonegate’s water crisis
As summer draws to a close, there is a storm brewing in the tiny
town of Tres Pinos. A water emergency, plus a developer’s offer to
pay for the solution, has kicked the anti-development faction into
high gear.
At the center of the controversy is Stonegate, a 73-home gated
community near Tres Pinos that depends on a single source of
water,
”
blue valve
”
from the San Felipe Water Importation Project.
Local developers offer to solve Stonegate’s water crisis
As summer draws to a close, there is a storm brewing in the tiny town of Tres Pinos. A water emergency, plus a developer’s offer to pay for the solution, has kicked the anti-development faction into high gear.
At the center of the controversy is Stonegate, a 73-home gated community near Tres Pinos that depends on a single source of water, “blue valve” from the San Felipe Water Importation Project.
County staff informed Stonegate residents that their summer water allocation was cut by 50 percent – an allotment they were not told of until they used it all.
County officials found them enough water for household use.
“The issue with water out there is solely within the realm of agricultural use,” said James Dellamonica, Calfire fire marshal for San Benito County. “They ran out of water for their lawns.”
Stonegate is the only private system in the county that relies on San Felipe Water. A federal Bureau of Reclamation project, San Felipe’s supply is carried from northernmost California through a network of canals and pipelines. It is intended primarily for agricultural use, but Stonegate developers installed a private water treatment plant in order to use the water. Federal officials reduced the local allotment this year.
One possible solution is a pipeline between Stonegate and the Tres Pinos Water District that local developers John Eade and Gerald Posey offered to pay for.
Eade hoped to develop the Spur Hotel, a project planned for Tres Pinos that failed after San Benito County officials approved it using improper procedure. His latest plans are for 16 residential units on the same 2.9-acre parcel. Posey has proposed a commercial project on now-vacant land along Airline Hwy. across from several restaurants.
Tres Pinos Water District board members agreed to sell Stonegate 50,000 gallons of water per day, but only with a pipeline that connects the districts, said Mike Randle, president of the Stonegate Homeowners’ Association. Currently, they are buying 20,000 gallons.
The pipeline, a temporary emergency tie-in, would give Tres Pinos residents backup water for fire suppression through use of Stonegate’s 150,000-gallon water tank.
“It seems like everybody comes out a winner in this deal,” said Fred Flook, owner of Tres Pinos Ranch Supply and Feed. “Tres Pinos comes out with a nice income for water they’re not using anyway. They get additional fire suppression. Stonegate gets additional water at a great price.”
Though Robert Frusetta, a Tres Pinos Water District board member, said that Flook is working for Posey, when asked Flook said that he was not.
Tres Pinos Water District board members verbally approved the emergency intertie, said Janie Lausten, a board member. The next step is to vote on a contract. The water district meeting was on Aug. 28, after press time.
If the pipeline became permanent, Stonegate residents would repay Eade and Posey 50 percent of their costs, Randle said. The water district would have to bear the other half of the cost.
Eade and Posey would get credit from the Tres Pinos County Water District for use in future connections. As the details of the contract have not been made public, it is unclear whether they would get credit for future hookups if the pipeline is not made permanent.
“This temporary connection I think is an excuse to make something permanent,” said Ed Schmidt, a Tres Pinos Water District board member. “I think some of the board members would like to get it done fast and maybe not be as prudent as they should be.”
Within certain limits, the additional water would open the town to new development, said Dellamonica.
“Both commercial and residential, because if the systems were tied together they would meet fire code requirements,” Dellamonica said.
Buildings in Tres Pinos are considered existing non-conforming, Dellamonica said.
“The existing buildings out there never really met fire code in the first place,” Dellamonica said. “Any new sprinklered residences of 0-3,000 square feet would just make fire requirements.”
For commercial buildings, the situation is different.
“They require higher fire flow, and that’s the issue that we’re dealing with now,” Dellamonica said. “What we have done is said, ‘Tres Pinos, you need to do the work on your system.'”
Dellamonica does not see a negative side to the pipeline, he said.
“However, that’s not our realm,” Dellamonica said.
The pipeline would not be subject to environmental review because it is a temporary emergency pipeline, Eade said.
“They’re trying to shove this through without doing the proper studies and have John Eade pay for it,” said Jamie Frusetta, a Tres Pinos resident and wife of Tres Pinos County Water District board member Robert Frusetta.
“It’s not right,” she said. “What if our well runs dry? We don’t have another well.”
To test the impact, at the next water district board meeting Randle will request that they sell him the full 50,000 gallons for at least a week, he said.
Not developing the town’s water system is a ploy by some residents who do not want more development, Randle said.
“If that’s the case, then a future board will probably not allow [the intertie] to become permanent,” Randle said. “We certainly don’t want to pay for 100 percent of the costs in this case. If the developers want to take that risk, then that’s their cost.”
Water district officials do not have the money for additional fire suppression, said Jason Noble, who owns property that he wants to annex into Tres Pinos
“These guys are taking the risk,” Noble said. “They want to build on their properties. It’s not a backroom deal. It’s all being worked through at board meetings and committee meetings.”
The three members of the Tres Pinos Water District board who were appointed by San Benito County supervisors are voting in a block, said Jamie Frusetta.
“The emergency thing is getting thrown around real loosely,” said Bobby Zaucha, a former board member and current candidate. “We’re not doing this as an emergency. We’re doing this to get them in as customers. I think if it’s done properly it could benefit everyone.”
Water district board members gave Eade conditional approval for future hookups in November, he said. Credit for future hookups would probably be a will-serve letter.
“We already have a conditional will serve,” Eade said. “Conditional on them lifting the moratorium.”
The moratorium was self-imposed by Tres Pinos Water District board members, but a self-imposed moratorium is illegal, said Chuck Ortwein, senior planner for San Benito County. A water moratorium has to come from Regional Water Quality Control Board officials.
“It was kind of a way to control land use,” Ortwein said. “If someone were wanting to fight that, they would probably win.”
The intertie is not about residents versus developers, Flook said.
“I think [Robert Frusetta] realizes that if the water district makes any kind of progress, somehow, besides helping the water district, it might end up benefiting Mr. Eade or Mr. Posey,” Flook said. “His job shouldn’t be to stop development and try to run the planning commission for San Benito County from a seat on the water district.”
Robert Frusetta said he is trying to protect the people within Tres Pinos Water District.
“My job is to ensure that we have the best protections in place for the providing of drinking water and sewer services for the people of Tres Pinos,” Robert said. “There’s been plenty of summers that we’ve sweated it because our well levels were nearing critical. We’ve had people on a waiting list in our own district that we haven’t served yet.”
An emergency situation is different, Frusetta said.
“If they need an emergency intertie because they’re short on water, we give it to them,” Frusetta said. “But as far as going beyond that, that’s a different story.”
Residents should attend the board meetings and educate themselves, Noble said.
“There’s a lot of speculation and misinformation being circulated in the community,” Noble said.
People have been talking about an intertie between the Tres Pinos Water District and Stonegate for decades, Noble said.
“Now here we are 20 years later and we’re in the same situation,” Noble said.
Upgrading the system is beyond the financial means of the Tres Pinos Water District, Dellamonica agreed.
“For them to totally bring their system into compliance today would probably require them to go into default,” Dellamonica said.
There was a fire in Tres Pinos over Fourth of July weekend that came close to several homes, Noble said.
“People have been saying they didn’t run out of water,” Noble said. “That’s good, because all they had was a grass fire.”
