The Carbon County Commissioners had a lengthy discussion on water and its affects on local economic growth during their meeting on Wednesday evening.
Todd Thorne, Director of Building and Planning for Carbon County, provided some insight to the issues the county is facing. He said that his department is approached by many people and developers looking to buy water for new homes or commercial purposes.
Thorne explained that single home builders are usually looking to purchase one water share, while developers are often seeking 10-20 shares. There are not many shares available, and most are not willing to sell their own shares to newcomers.
Commissioner Larry Jensen said this has been a large hurdle in economic development, especially with industry. He explained that there is approximately $9.5 million worth of projects that want to come to the area, but they are hitting dead ends with water rights.
This led to a discussion about allocating county-owned shares to new developments. Curtis Paige, county engineer, was asked to review how many shares the county owns and what they are used for so that an informed decision could be made.
Paige explained that Carbon County owns 443.7 shares, with each share being equivalent to one acre foot. The county uses its water for the fairgrounds and Gigliotti fish ponds, the Carbon Country Club Golf Course, and county-owned properties, such as the fairgrounds ball fields and senior center.
Paige explained that after the water is used in the aforementioned places, the county still has 179 water shares that are being unused. With this information, the commissioners discussed the possibility of allocating some of these shares to new development.
“I think it is wise that we look at this,” Commissioner Tony Martines said. “I don’t think I would have the appetite to get rid of all the excess shares or the proposed excess shares, but possibly a certain portion of them.”
The commissioners recently decided that 50 of these shares would be allocated to the construction of new homes within the county. The discussion at Wednesday’s meeting was to consider also using those shares for commercial or industrial use.
“The idea here is to have some available as folks came in,” Commissioner Jensen said. “We don’t see another way to help get some growth occurring here to help offset the tax burden that our folks are having right now.”
A motion was made to include commercial or industrial use with the 50 shares that were preciously allocated to homes. With the motion, the county will now be able to use those 50 shares to assist prospective home builders, developers and businesses looking to build in Carbon County.
Ultimately, this will leave 129 unused shares in the county’s possession for future use or reallocation. The hope is that the newly-allocated water shares will spur some of the stalled economic projects throughout the county.