On Tuesday, the board was supposed to continue its discussion and deliberation on the Bonavita Estates plan put forward by Gary Johnson and Kurt Steil, which includes the ski lake and five residential parcels on 534 acres on Butts Canyon Road.
The board heard several hours of testimony at its Nov. 18 meeting and had closed the public hearing.
But on Tuesday, Board Chair Ed Robey said he wanted to give Callayomi County Water District General Manager Frank Haas an opportunity to speak to the lake proposal.
The lake will be 2,100 feet long and 218 feet wide, and will be supplied by groundwater pumping, as Lake County News has reported. It will take 50 acre feet of water – or more than 16 million gallons – to fill the lake, which will need to be refilled due to evaporation each summer.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors dated Nov. 13, Haas – on behalf of the Callayomi district board – wrote that the water district board had recently found out that a well test that was completed to show there was enough water to fill the lake lasted less than four hours and was done during the height of the rainy season.
“We, as a board, feel that given that the plan to fill the lake will involve pumping for two weeks, and then continual pumping to maintain the lake level during the dry season months, a longer pump test should be performing during the dry season thus reflecting more accurately the impact such a project will actually have on the basin and surrounding properties and wells,” the letter stated.
The letter also suggested that a 72-hour test performed some time before July and the first major rainfall would be more appropriate.
“Without the data and analysis of the performance of a more representative and realistic well test, our board strongly opposes the approval of this projects as potentially detrimental to the water levels of the basin and surrounding property wells, one of which we are currently in negotiation to purchase for the district,” the letter stated.
Robey said he had spoken to Haas since the last meeting, at which Haas hadn't been able to speak, and he wanted to offer additional input and clarification.
However, County Counsel Anita Grant said if Haas were to give additional input at Tuesday's meeting it couldn't be part of the evidence the board used to make its decision.
The alternative, said Grant, was to reopen the public hearing, but it would require giving out a new public notice and delaying the matter.
Robey was willing to continue the item. “There's no urgency to continue this. A couple more weeks won't matter.”
He said the project's unique nature warranted more time to receive additional testimony from the water district. “It's not quite like anything we have provisions for in our zoning and planning rules and regulations,” he said. “It's kind of a precedent-setting thing.”
Supervisor Rob Brown said he didn't have a problem waiting for more information, but questioned Robey's statement that there was no urgency relating to the project.
Robey said Haas told him that the Callayomi board held a meeting Monday night and received a large packet of information. The district has a meeting scheduled for Dec. 11 at which they'll discuss the lake, so Robey asked for a continuance to Dec. 16.
Supervisor Jeff Smith questioned if they were setting a precedent by not taking action, suggesting that issues could be stretched out continuously if people wanted to keep offering more information.
Robey said the project was unique, and it was an agency, not a person, seeking to give the additional testimony.
“Nothing would please me more than trying to reach a conclusion today,” said Robey, adding that he wanted a full and fair hearing.
Brown said Robey had gone above and beyond in giving the matter a fair hearing, citing the testimony that stretched across five and a half hours the previous week – testimony which Brown said could have been summed up in about an hour.
Supervisor Denise Rushing said since the ski lake is in Robey's district, she trusts that the testimony he wants to have presented is substantive enough that the boards needs to hear it.
Dec. 16, said Brown, is Robey's last meeting before retiring, and he questioned what might happen if they still can't reach a decision.
“I want to have this decision made while I'm on the board,” replied Robey.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington said, overall, he's grappling with the ski lake issue, particularly his concerns about access to so much water for a limited group.
Was it reasonable, he asked, to only have five parcels making use of all of that water on an annual basis? Farrington said he was interested in looking at repositioning the project.
Haas, who spoke briefly to the board Tuesday, said his board of directors had received a large amount of information the night before and needed some time to digest it. Brown had suggested Callayomi hold a special board meeting in order to come back with input, but Haas said he couldn't speak to setting a special meeting date without talking to the board first.
Smith said at the last meeting Tom Smythe of the county's Water Resources Division had said the groundwater supply information provided by Johnson and Steil looked good, so he questioned why Callayomi's information was needed.
“There's more to hydrology than supply,” said Robey, citing a geothermal toxic waste site in the area and the many homes that have been built since a report – which was used for the project's hydrology study – was completed in the 1950s.
“I thought that was covered,” said Smith.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the board continued the discussion, with a reopening of the public comment period, to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
Brown said he wasn't up to allowing a “rehash” at that upcoming meeting of the hours of testimony that the board already had heard.
He also suggested that if the Callayomi board doesn't hold a special meeting to discuss its issues in order to offer testimony Dec. 9 the supervisors should go ahead with making a decision.
“I appreciate the board's indulgence,” said Robey.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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