Residents of northern Weld County could see new construction now that a local water district has given developers the green light to apply for water services after a three-year wait.

The North Weld County Water District halted real estate development in 2021 when it announced a moratorium on faucet sales and new water applications amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a craze for statewide housing. The developers’ projects are at a standstill. Growth in housing stock has stopped.

The district’s work began: They had to pull the reins to determine if they even had enough capacity to serve everyone who wanted water, said Tad Stout, president of the district’s board of directors.

“We got to a point where we felt that because of the crazy growth that Northern Colorado was experiencing, we needed to be careful in how we harnessed our water,” he said.

The North Weld County Water District’s service area spans miles of hot real estate in Weld County and part of Larimer County. It helps provide water to more than 50,000 people, including seven towns and large farms.

The neighborhood was already experiencing rapid growth in its service area. Between 2010 and 2020, Weld County’s population grew by more than 30%, making it the second-fastest growing county in the state, according to the county.

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped transform a booming market into a “wild” and “insane” market.

Municipal storage tanks were unable to keep up with demand. The reservoirs were supposed to fill at night, when less water was used, but the levels kept falling, Stout said. The pipe system maxed out as people watered their lawns and washed their cars, and feedlots and dairy farmers tapped into their water supplies.

The dial on the main meter was going round and round, he said.

“When you see near-empty reservoirs on a summer day… it gives us pause and we think maybe we should think more about the strain we’re putting on our system,” Stout said.

At the same time, changing regulations in Fort Collins and Larimer County have sowed uncertainty over a major water project, the NEWT 3 pipeline, which was supposed to transport water across the county and Interstate 25.

If it stagnated, there would be no growth, Stout said.

“We were just selling water, you know? We were just selling water to people, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of questions asked,” he said. “Basically our engineers were saying we need to slow down and evaluate what we’re doing here.”

“We need to slow down”

The Northern Colorado Water District isn’t the only water provider trying to find a way to meet the demands of a growing population.

The city of Buena Vista estimated that it could run out of water for new developments as early as 2030. In response, it adopted a policy in 2023, which ties water use and development to specific community priorities, such as more affordable workforce housing.

Across Colorado, cities and industries could face a deficit of 230,000 to 740,000 acre-feet by 2050, depending on the state’s 2023 water plan. One acre-foot is equivalent to little close to the annual use of two to three households.

In September 2021, North Weld imposed two moratoriums: It temporarily stopped selling new faucets, valves that connect homes to the main system. It also stopped reviewing water applications for proposed new developments.

“It’s painful,” Stout said. “We inherited the decision-making process from the boards that came before us that probably weren’t as… conservative.” »

Even cities were subject to the moratorium. If they wanted more water from the district, for example for a 500-housing project, that counted as a new request and was blocked.

Some projects were far enough along in planning that they could move forward, Stout said. They had to get the letter of intent, off-site infrastructure reports and the development had to be permit-ready, he said.

Dollars at stake

That wasn’t the case for Aaron Everitt, a local real estate agent and developer.

Everitt purchased a farm off County Road 25 in 2020 and planned to turn it into a nine-lot subdivision.

He had a buyer, a $1.25 million contract and a letter of intent from the water district. But the project was not advanced enough and was suspended by the moratorium.

He renegotiated with the buyer and walked away with a $900,000 contract. The letter of will has expired.

“North Weld serves an extremely large area of ​​land,” Everitt said. “When they say we have had no service on this land for three years, hundreds of people have been affected.”

Everitt lost more than $300,000, but other developers had millions of dollars on the line, he said.

It must complete the months-long review process by about July or risk losing another $500,000. And it will try to sell the lots in 2025 rather than 2022, meaning sales could take longer, he said.

“I’m talking in numbers, the average person will just say, ‘Good for you.’ I’m glad you lost $350,000. I understand that, and I’m not even necessarily complaining about it,” Everitt said. “That’s exactly what the market did.”

He said he didn’t want to seem angry: he wasn’t. This is a risk he runs in the course of his business activities.

“I need North Weld to cooperate to get me something, so I can’t suggest at all that I’m negative toward North Weld,” Everitt said.

Give the green light

The water district lifted its moratorium on faucet sales in February 2022, but left the development moratorium in place as it began work on a new master plan.

The team asked towns in the district’s catchment area to estimate their water needs over the coming decades. The district mapped its system and identified inefficiencies as well as improvements that would provide the best bang for their buck.

They upgraded the filters at the Soldier Canyon treatment plant, allowing it to treat more water. In 2018, the water treatment plant’s capacity was 45 million gallons per day. By 2024, this figure would reach 68 million gallons.

This increased the district’s treated water supply from 16.3 million gallons to 26.5 million gallons of water per day. The NEWT 3 project, which is several months away from completion, will also increase capacity by 10 million gallons per day.

With these improvements, the district says it can meet future growth needs through approximately 2035. Other improvements are underway that should allow the district to meet projected demand through 2045, said Eric Breckentine, the district’s chief executive officer.

Concerns about the timing of the NEWT 3 pipeline were also eased when Fort Collins narrowed the scope of its new regulations, known as 1041 due to a regulatory process outlined in House Bill 1041 in the 1970s.

“The Council ultimately agreed to this project because it was already a done deal. We had already weighed in on this. Things were already moving and we didn’t think we would get better results by passing Resolution 1041,” said Fort Collins Senior Environmental Planner Kirk Longstein.

North Water lifted its development moratorium in early November, saying the improvements have increased confidence in their ability to service new developments.

“I’m glad they’re back online. They’re a big player in Northern Colorado,” Everitt said.

New construction is a safety valve for the market, and more housing stock could help make housing affordable.

Stout said the moratorium could have been painful, but it was necessary.

“By serving on this board and making these decisions — based on the information we had at that time — I believe we did the best thing for our customers, 100 percent,” Stout said . “I believe that deep in my heart.”