Of Yorba Linda*

Recommendations 1

• R1
  Each Orange County municipal planning agency, in cooperation with its respective water supply agency, should prepare for adoption by its city council, a dedicated Water Element to its General Plan in conjunction with a future update, not to exceed June 30, 2010. This document should include detailed implementation measures based on objective-based policies that match projections of the County's future water supplies. These objectives, policies and implementation measures should address imported supply constraints, including catastrophic outages and incorporate the realistic availability and timing of "new" water sources such as desalination, contaminated groundwater reclamation and surface water recycling. The recommendation will not be implemented. General Plan mandates are the purview of the State. A requirement to add an additional Element to all Orange County General Plans would not be in compliance with State Law (which currently mandates seven elements - none of which is a Water Element). Each city should have the discretion and autonomy to decide regulations and requirements that are best for it. In this regard, the City will be embarking upon an update to the 1993 Yorba Linda General Plan beginning in 2010. Included within the scope of this work will be an assessment of public services and facilities, including the provision of adequate water supplies (as currently required by State General Plan Law). There is already a mandatory requirement for General Plans to include a Conservation Element, providing the opportunity to include appropriate policies regarding water supply and conservation. Discussion and policy related to water quality, supply and delivery may already be included in this Element. In addition, when the Land Use Element of a city's General Plan is updated, the "build out" of the land use plan must consider the ability to provide public utilities and services, including water supply. The development of a General Plan Element would take at least 18 months, while General Plan Updates can take several years to complete. In addition, city budgets for this Fiscal Year have already been adopted and costs associated with such a requirement have not been included. Requiring another General Plan element would constitute an unfunded government mandate, at a time when cities and counties are struggling to meet other State requirements while the State depletes city and county resources Water planning is more appropriately and effectively done by water agencies, which are special districts under State law, than by municipal government. City and water district boundaries often do not coincide, so cities would have to work with multiple water agencies and water agencies would have to work with multiple cities to prepare Water Elements. This could result in conflicting policies within a city's Water Element, while State law requires that General Plans be internally consistent. Water supply is a statewide and regional issue. Policies and implementation measures adopted by local governments cannot change state or regional policies. Even if a Water Element were to be adopted as part of a city's General Plan, local agencies have very limited powers to The Honorable Kim Dunning 2008-2009 Orange County Grand Jury Report December 7, 2009 implement and enforce meaningful measures to ration or conserve water supplies. As noted above, the City intends to begin a comprehensive update to the 1993 General Plan beginning next year. At that time there will be an assessment pertaining to the appropriate location of water supply issues. In addition to the water demand and supply issues that were the focus of the Grand Jury's Water Report, the Yorba Linda community faces potential public safety issues relating to the adequacy of water supply and fire flows in neighborhoods within the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire areas. These and other public safety issues will be addressed in a thorough update to the mandated Public Safety Element. It is anticipated that the Yorba Linda Water District and the Orange County Fire Authority will be active participants in this effort. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to respond to these Findings and Recommendations. Should you have any questions or need clarification of any of the aforementioned items, please feel free to contact David Adams, Yorba Linda City Manager, at 714/961-7110. Sincerely John Anderson Mayor