What is an Assured Water Supply?
The Assured Water Supply Program ensures that new developments in any of Arizona’s five AMAs must prove a 100-year renewable supply of water before construction can begin. This evaluation must consider current and committed water supply demand as well as projections for growth.
How does the Assured Water Supply Program affect our region?
The Assured Water Supply Program applies to Arizona’s five Active Management Areas (AMAs) including our local Prescott AMA covering 485 square miles in central Yavapai County.
The Prescott AMA boundary encompasses the Bradshaw Mountains to the south, Granite Mountain and Sullivan Buttes to the west and the Black Hills to the northeast. To simplify the area even more, the Prescott AMA encompasses the City of Prescott, Town of Prescott Valley, Yavapai-Prescott Indian Reservation, and portions of the Towns of Chino Valley, Dewey-Humboldt and unincorporated areas of Yavapai County.
What are the faults with the Assured Water Supply Program?
The issue with this policy is that this law does not apply to land leases, rental communities, or “wildcat” subdivisions. This unfortunately allows for some developers to bypass the 100-year water supply requirements by creating build-to-rent models rather than for-sale homes as seen by many communities in the Phoenix area. “Casa Grande alone saw around 700 build-to-rent units get final build approval around May, something the city rarely saw before ADWR’s report (Source, Channel 12).”
How can our community help?
As a local community builder based in Prescott Valley, we know that careful land planning for our region seeds the community for responsible and sustainable growth. This planning cultivates multiple fields of opportunities to allow organizations, families, and individuals to thrive. One way we are setting the standards in our region for responsible and sustainable growth is by exemplifying social responsibility.
Our newest community building projects for attainable housing in our community, The Observatory and Lakeshore650, are not required to provide a 100-year Assured Water Supply under current state law, however, Fain Signature Group and our development partners have promised to provide a 100-year Assured Water Supply to these projects despite this current law.
Brad Fain, CEO of Fain Signature Group, states, “We are going to provide the 100-year Assured Water Supply for these projects because we know that it is the right thing to do for our community and for our environment. We hope that others will follow in our footsteps and provide carefully planned, sustainable growth in our communities and care for the land and our community as much as we do.”
