Paper Water - Does Orange County have a Reliable Future?*

There is inadequate coordination between local land-use planning agencies and local water supply agencies, resulting in a process that fails to fully engage the issues. Response. The City of Mission Viejo disagrees with the finding. The City of Mission Viejo has three water district agencies serving the City. These water district agencies are El Toro, Moulton Niguel, and Santa Margarita. Each of these water district agencies prepare an Urban Water Management Plan that is updated every five years and is used by the City in its General Plan preparation and environmental analysis. Although the City of Mission Viejo is mostly built-out, the City does coordinate review of new development projects with the local water districts. Water supply assessment is also considered in the environmental review process per the California Environmental Quality Act. For new development, the City also requests the developer / subdivider to provide the City with a "will- serve" letter from the applicable water district prior to commencing construction on the project. The City has partnered with water districts in advocating the use of drought plants for landscaping, and homeowner grants for smart timer irrigation. The City has also been applying Low Impact Development techniques in the design of projects with the goal of zero water runoff in compliance with State regional water quality control board NPDES requirements. State housing law requires that the City be responsible for providing for the development of new housing for a growing population. This is implemented via the City's General Plan Housing Element and periodic Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). Water agencies view their role as accommodating growth. The City provides its water agencies with a copy of our Housing 949/470-3050 200 Civic Center • Mission Viejo, California 92691 FAX 949/859-1386 http://www.cityofmissionviejo.org ♦ 45 وني Element to assist them with planning as required by State law.

California's looming water supply crisis receives very little, if any, expressed concern from the public in comparison to the numerous other environmental issues presented during development project reviews. Response. The City of Mission Viejo agrees with the finding. The California Environmental Quality Act charges planning agencies with presenting information on all potential impacts. It is true that more detailed discussion is often provided on issues such as traffic and noise because these are the issues that are most often raised by the public in response to notices of preparation of the project's Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Planning agencies are required to address issues raised during the EIR process. It would not be appropriate for the City to suggest that significant environmental impacts would occur when information from reliable sources (i.e. water districts) demonstrate that such impacts would not occur.