SCV Water makes 489 acre-feet of water available to Tapia Ranch project

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SCV Water officials pledged Tuesday to set aside 489 acre-feet of water for 405 Tapia Ranch homes between Castaic and Tesoro del Valle.

Last month, the agency’s Water Resources and Watershed Committee approved a resolution earmarking that amount of water for the housing project and, on Tuesday, the Board of Directors finalized it.

In making that much water available to Tapia Ranch developers, board members specified it would come from the agency’s Buena Vista Rosedale Rio Bravo water supply.

That much water is about the same as 489 football fields flooded with one foot of water.

Steve Cole, the agency’s assistant general manager, explained to the board with a presentation that Tapia and two other housing projects — Legacy Village and Tesoro del Valle’s Highlands — exist on land that would have to be annexed into the SCV Water service area.

According to the Urban Water Management Plan, which cities are required to release every five years, officials believe they have enough water in the Buena Vista Rosedale Rio Bravo Water Supply to meet the needs of the three developments.

Every five years, state water officials expect California communities to deliver a plan for how they propose to manage their water.

Three projects

The three housing projects would require less water than what the Urban Water Management Plan estimated in 2015.

On Tuesday, board members were shown a chart indicating 3,378 acre-feet of water would be needed to service Tapia, Tesoro and Legacy combined, whereas planners had predicted they would need 3,575 acre-feet of water.

“As supplies substantially exceed demands for the scenarios in the 2015 UWMP, staff concludes that sufficient  Buena Vista Rosedale Rio Bravo water supplies will exist for the proposed Tapia Ranch project,” Dirk Marks, the agency’s director of water resources, wrote in a memo to the board on the subject.

Tapia Ranch

Tapia Ranch, which was expected to need 575 acre-feet of water according to the 2015 plan, Cole told board members.

In addition to 405 homes to be built, the project also calls for eight open space lots, one water tank, one water pump station, a park, nine lots earmarked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and one private street.

Comparatively, the Legacy Village project takes up 1,758 acres and calls for 3,457 dwelling units, which breaks down to 1,011 homes and 2,446 condos.

Legacy Village

Three years ago, the Legacy Village project was estimated to need 2,500 acre-feet of water, and that number still stands by current estimates.

It also includes a 342-bed senior, assisted-living facility, more than 30 acres devoted to public and private recreation areas, a fire station and commercial space that takes up 839,000 square feet.

The Tesoro project — referred to by developers at the Highlands Project — calls for 820 homes, nine multi-family lots, 12 water quality basin lots, three water tank lots, one helipad lot, six senior recreation area lots, six linear park lots and nine private park lots, a senior recreation center, 29 lots reserved for open space and 24 private driveways.

Tesoro Highlands

It was initially thought in 2015 that the Tesoro extension would need 500 acre-feet of water.  Current estimates show it requires 389 acre-feet of water.

The reason Tesoro’s 820 homes require less water than Tapia’s 405 homes is because much of Tesoro del Valle is already inside the SCV Water service area.

“The reason the numbers don’t look to align is that a substantial portion of the Tesoro extension is already within the water agency boundary and does not require annexation or the need to pay for additional water resources,” Cole said Wednesday.

“The 389 represents the demand for the residences which fall outside the existing boundary,” he said.

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