Lancaster Council Decides Against Imposing Controls on Water Uses : Drought: A proposed ordinance would have had restrictions similar to those in effect in Los Angeles for years.

Despite the drought, Lancaster City Council members Monday night rejected water-use restrictions for the Mojave Desert city similar to those adopted by communities throughout Southern California.

By a 3-2 vote, the council turned down a proposed city ordinance that would have: restricted lawn watering to certain hours, prohibited water runoff into streets, banned washing vehicles with running hoses and barred restaurants from serving water to customers unless requested.

“I have a real problem with this ordinance,” said Councilman Arnie Rodio. “I see a lot of bugaboos in this,” he added, before he and council members William Pursley and George Theophanis voted to defeat the proposal, which would have taken effect immediately.

Mayor Henry Hearns and Councilman George Root voted for the measure.

The ordinance would not have limited the amount of water city residents could use but would have regulated how they use it. Water rationing had already been imposed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which recently passed an ordinance requiring Lancaster residents to reduce their water use by 20% starting next month. The county provides water service to Lancaster.

The city’s ordinance was to have been a companion measure to prevent waste. Repeated violations of the city measure would have been a misdemeanor punishable by fine or jail sentence.

The measure’s enforcement provisions, which included having city officials issue citations to violators, bothered council members Theophanis and Pursley. Rodio, a plumber, complained that water runs off his lawn after less than 4 minutes but his sprinkler timer cannot be set to operate for less than 5 minutes.

The Lancaster measure was similar to those that have been in effect in the city of Los Angeles for at least several years and that were adopted by county supervisors for unincorporated areas earlier this year. Officials in neighboring Palmdale passed similar water-use restrictions in February.

Specifically, the Lancaster measure would have prohibited using water to hose down driveways or other paved areas, landscape watering between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., water run-off into gutters and streets and use of drinking water to control dust in construction projects or to fill decorative fountains and ponds unless equipped with a water recycling system.