Continuing on the theme from yesterday’s post, interesting story in today’s Trib about development approval processes in Washington County, where plats and other residential developments will need to have a water district sign-off before they can proceed.  Probably the more interesting part of this for those involved in land use approval processes is the procedure that will be followed here.  There have always been questions and differences in how to approach phased projects, how the approvals given early in the process apply some time (sometimes years) later for subsequent phases.  Here’s what the story says about the Washington County process:

… it would require developers to pay the impact fees on all the lots in a subdivision up front instead of one at a time as they build on them. While that additional cash outlay is not without pain, Young said it would discourage a run on the tap by nervous developers, who might otherwise take in enormous preliminary plats just to tie up all the water for future use.

Coordination between water providers and local governments that ultimately approve new developments to proceed forward is going to increasingly become a prime area of concern, in need of better coordination and cooperation.

Hoping to discuss all this at the ULUI Land Use Conference October 25.