Developers Made 3-Week Rush for Permits : City Council Finally Votes Sewer Hookup Ban

A sewer connection ban in San Diego’s fast-growing northern areas was finally approved by the City Council on Monday, three weeks after the council had called for the controversial moratorium to protect public health.

Council members voted 6-2 to enact an emergency ordinance that prevents the city from approving any developments or issuing any sewer connection permits until July 29 in Sorrento Valley, Rancho Penasquitos, Rancho Bernardo, Sabre Springs, North City West, Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa--areas that funnel raw human and industrial wastes to Pump Station 64 in Sorrento Valley.

The council decided on the July 29 deadline because that is a day after city water officials are to appear before the Regional Water Quality Control Board, a state agency, and present an emergency plan for stopping the spills at Station 64.

The council first called for the moratorium on building and sewer connection permits when it passed a resolution to that effect on June 24 at the urging of Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who complained that Station 64 was a public health hazard because millions of gallons of sewage would back up there and be dumped in Los Penasquitos Lagoon.

Since the June 24 meeting, however, the council has failed to approve the necessary emergency ordinance to initiate the moratorium. One week, there weren’t the required six votes to pass the emergency measure, and last week the council postponed the vote to attend Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s inauguration.

As a result, builders in the interim have applied for and received more than twice the usual number of sewer connection permits. A city Water Utilities Department spokeswoman said Friday that developers had received 225 sewer connection permits.

City officials said they were powerless to withhold the permits because the council failed to follow up its resolution with an emergency ordinance.

And one building industry representative, Pardee Construction Co. Vice President Michael Madigan, said his company would be at a competitive “disadvantage” if it did not continue to apply for building and sewer connection permits. Madigan had told council members June 24 that he and his company would abide by the moratorium.

Wolfsheimer said Monday she was relieved that the council had finally enacted the emergency ordinance. But she said she was still “disturbed that both members of the building industry and (the city) staff would not honor the intent of our decision on June 24.”

“It came to me as a shock, because I really did believe that both of those entities would act in good faith and no sewage permits would be issued,” Wolfsheimer said. She said statistics from June 23 to July 10 show that Pardee collected more than 35 sewage connection permits.

O’Connor on Monday cast the sixth and deciding vote for the moratorium.

“I think this shows our good faith as far as the council that we are concerned about the problem and we want to do whatever is necessary to alleviate that problem,” she said. “The council in concept has approved this.”

The council enacted the emergency measure despite testimony from city administrators that Pump Station 64 is working well and can handle any additional sewer hookups delayed by the moratorium.

Outlining part of their emergency plan to stave off future spills, administrators said a backup source of power to the pumps will be installed within 60 days.

They also said the city plans to install an 84-inch pipe at the station by Dec. 1 that would contain as many as 300,000 gallons of sewage if a spill occurred. The plant’s daily capacity is 38.5 million gallons.

Kim Kilkenny, lobbyist for the Construction Industry Federation, argued that the emergency ordinance was unnecessary and would mean “substantial” economic hardship to developers. He said 7,300 homes and businesses would be built in the Station 64 area during the next year, creating 20,000 jobs and bringing $1.9 billion into the local economy.

Preventing developers from picking up their building permits, even for two weeks, would hurt the economy, Kilkenny argued.

Voting against the emergency ordinance were Councilmen Mike Gotch and Bill Cleator. Councilman Ed Struiksma was on vacation.

Gotch, considered to be the council’s liberal and environmentalist, spoke out strongly for the connection ban June 24. But he switched his vote Monday, saying he favored a milder measure, suggested by Kilkenny, to place a moratorium on sewer connection permits without stopping developers from obtaining their building permits and breaking ground.

“I don’t think you have to put people out of work to solve a problem,” Gotch said.

Council members, however, left the door open Monday to extend the moratorium beyond July 29.