City Council Grants Water Rights License to 'One Carter' Hillside Developer

Sierra Madre’s City Council has approved a resolution granting a water rights license to One Carter, LLC, the development company that owns the beleaguered tract of hillside single-family home lots at the top of Baldwin Avenue. The issue is the latest in the shaky and .

In an exchange that seemed confusing to many in the audience as well as some city council members, the grant of the so-called “Revocable License” to access and potentially utilize the ground water under the One Carter lots comes in exchange for a granting of those same water rights from the company to the City of Sierra Madre on a permanent, non-revocable basis.

Council Member Joe Mosca expressed concern over whether or not One Carter planned to exercise these rights by pumping their own water and/or not using the city’s water system.

But City Manager Elaine Aguilar said that the issue was more about the City’s retaining water rights than it was about giving them away.

“We’re not entirely sure how much water is there. We’re getting easements so we can access it should we need to,” Aguilar said.

The agreement approved at Tuesday’s meeting was at least one year in the making, with Council Members John Buchanan and MaryAnn MacGillivray, who had been appointed by the City Council to review the agreements, having essentially already approved the terms of agreement.

“To be honest, our focus wasn’t on the license [granting revocable water rights to One Carter, LLC] when we did it, it was really about the access [for the city],” Buchanan said.

To that end, as a part of the license granted to One Carter, the City will retain the legal means of access to certain lots within the development tract. According to the language from of the grant, this easement will allow the city to access those lots “for the purpose of taking such actions as are necessary or convenient to exercise its water rights or water pumping rights” as well as to maintain and repair certain existing wells and pipes already in place.

There were a couple of lots that we thought might limit our ability to actually get to the water,” Mayor John Buchanan said. “So the owners, before they actually buy these lots, they should know that the city has got easement access over multiple ones.”

The City Council approved the One Carter water rights resolution unanimously as part of the consent calendar vote.