More than 60 developers, architects, landscapers and other business leaders turned out Tuesday to question a proposed Tucson law that would require rainwater harvesting systems in new businesses, including most apartment complexes.
They asked for a delay in the law’s approval and significant exemptions, saying they are concerned about its costs, unclear standards and how it will be enforced, especially during drought.
The meeting was at the East Side office of Ward 2 City Councilman Rodney Glassman, who has spearheaded the push for the harvesting law since taking office last December.
The law, currently scheduled for an Oct. 14 City Council vote, would be the first of its kind in the country.
The ordinance would require that by 2010, new business developments submit a rainwater-harvesting plan.
Three years after getting the right to occupy their buildings, developers would have to get at least 75 percent of their landscaping water from storing rainwater in cisterns or by building berms or large basins to hold rainwater on a building site.
The proposal has been touted as a water-conservation measure forcing developers to find alternatives to using drinkable and reclaimed water to nourish lawns and other landscaping in office, shopping center and apartment projects.
Two business groups pushed for Tuesday’s meeting, the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Metropolitan Pima Alliance, a real estate interest group.
Officials with both groups said afterward that they believe passage of a rainwater-harvesting ordinance is inevitable, given campaign promises made by several council members to push for sustainability and “green initiatives” such as solar power and use of gray water.
There were few if any outright opponents to a harvesting law at the meeting.
But if the ordinance passes as now proposed, it could drive many new commercial builders into suburbs where such laws don’t exist — particularly for projects planned for the edge of the city, a Chamber of Commerce official said.
“People want a more vibrant Downtown, but you have Oro Valley growing, the county land north of River Road growing, Sahuarita, all the communities around it are growing,” said Robert Medler, the chamber’s manager for government affairs. “If you can go north of River Road and you don’t have to spend $15,000 to $20,000 in cisterns, and if you are an investor or a business, that could make a difference.”
As part of a list of written questions, the chamber and the alliance asked for five exemptions, for developments with “insubstantial” amounts of landscaping, for projects with less than 20,000 square feet of rooftop and for projects with landscaping watered by treated effluent, among others.
They also asked for an exemption for multifamily housing, since high-density development uses less water per person than single-family homes.
And, they asked if the enforcement provisions could be rewritten or deleted, given the “highly localized nature of rain events in Southern Arizona.”
Glassman countered that reducing the use of drinking water for landscaping is the right thing to do, “not just the right thing under certain circumstances.”
City staff members said a council-appointed task force had not recommended these exemptions. The circumstances under which the ordinance would be waived because of droughts will be dealt with when another advisory group decides on development standards, they added.
The city will work with business groups and will take a “measured and thoughtful approach,” Glassman said, adding, “We’re not going to rush.”
The law is important because Tucson is vulnerable to water shortages, he added.
Business officials laid out these concerns:
● City staffers pegged the cost of a harvesting system for a new Walgreens near Speedway and Country Club Road at $10,500. But officials of Diamond Ventures development firm, and of the harvesting firm Southern Arizona Rain Gutters, said they believe the costs for harvesting will be higher than city officials estimate, although they didn’t offer specifics.
● Priscilla Storm of Diamond Ventures questioned the 75 percent requirement, saying it will too hard to meet during the driest season, April through June.
● Many developers said the city shouldn’t pass the law until after city staffers produce detailed standards for how it will be put into effect. That would be the reverse of how most city laws are passed, but the developers said the unknowns of this one are so great as to warrant a delay.
● The law would exempt businesses during dry years, but doesn’t spell out the standard for determining a drought. It says the 75 percent requirement doesn’t apply in years in which annual precipitation “has fallen below the amount determined in the applicable development standards.”
● Enforcement also isn’t spelled out.
The cost issues will take the most time to work out because they’ll vary greatly for different sizes of developments, said Michael Guymon, acting director of the Metropolitan Pima Alliance. But he said he’s talked to no businessman who opposes this law outright, thanks to the community’s water-conservation ethic.
“People understand, whether it’s the business community, the neighborhoods, the environmental community or individuals in this community, that we need to do what we need to do to conserve water,” Guymon said.
