To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Nichol Bussey, Business Solutions Manager
Title
Ordinance Amending Chapters 13.12 and 13.15 of the Castle Rock Municipal Code by Adding New Sections and Definitions Which Allow for the Implementation of Drought Rates (Second Reading - Approved on First Reading on January 7, 2025 by a vote 7-0) [Entire Castle Rock Water service area]
Body
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this memorandum is to seek Town Council approval of an ordinance (Attachment A) making changes to Municipal Code Chapters 13.12 and 13.15 for the implementation of Drought Rates, as part of the 2025 Drought Management Plan (“Plan”) update. The Plan was last updated in 2018 and did not include a provision for Drought Rates.
One of Castle Rock Water’s strategic goals is to have a water supply that is 75% renewable by 2050 and 100% renewable (in an average water year) by 2065. While these changes provide a more diverse and reliable long-term water supply, it also subjects the Town to potentially larger impacts from drought as renewable supplies are significantly less available during drought conditions. This also supports the importance of our strategic plan goal to protect our nonrenewable groundwater supplies, which are generally not impacted directly by droughts. Protection of these supplies will strengthen the long-term water resources of the community.
This Plan focused on long-term drought mitigation in addition to strategies that provide short-term responses to temporary drought-related water supply shortages. The largest change to the Plan from the 2018 Plan is the implementation of a reduction of residential water budget levels and an increase in the water surcharge rates during various drought stages. This change has to be reflected in revisions to Town Code as well, see Attachment A.
The revised 2025 Plan (provided in Exhibit 1) was developed with input from a wide-spectrum of the community, including: Castle Rock Water; representatives of the Water Commission; Douglas County; Castle Rock Fire Department; Parks and Recreation; homeowners associations and members of the development community.
Financial Impact
The updated Drought Management Plan was developed by Castle Rock Water Staff. Thus, there was no direct budget impact to developing the 2025 Plan. The implementation of a reduction of residential water budget levels and an increase in the water surcharge rates during various drought stages in the 2025 Plan will have an impact on revenue during a drought. The exact extent of the impact is hard to measure and will depend on how much customers conserve at the various drought stages. Castle Rock Water had the potential impacts of the reduction of residential water budgets and water surcharge rates evaluated by Stantec, Castle Rock Water’s rates and fees consultant, using the CIM. The estimated revenue impacts from this work are as follows:
Staff Recommendation
Staff and Castle Rock Water Commission recommend that the Drought Rates be approved by Town Council.
Proposed Motion
“I move to approve the Resolution as introduced by title.”
Alternative Motions
“I move to approve the resolution as introduced by title, with the following conditions: (list conditions).”
“I move to continue this item to the Town Council meeting on _______ date to allow additional time to (list information needed).”
Attachments
Staff Report
Attachment A: Ordinance
Exhibit 1: Drought Management Plan
Attachment B: Stantec’s Report on Drought Stage Water Budgets and Water Surcharges