Tanzi Propst/Park Record
Oakley officials, citing concerns over drought conditions and the city’s water supply, have temporarily banned new development, saying they want to avoid a potential water crisis and ensure they have enough water for the city’s current residents.
Mayor Wade Woolstenhulme said construction already underway will be allowed to continue, and the moratorium won’t affect projects that already have building permits. New building permits for projects that require a water connection, however, will not be issued for six months.
“With the drought, it didn’t make a lot of sense to let people keep building,” Woolstenhulme said.
Park Record file photo
A few weeks after the rodeo last July, Oakley officials decided to temporarily ban development to address what they saw as shortcomings with the city’s land-use plans.
City Planner Stephanie Woolstenhulme said the move wasn’t made because of a big development on the horizon, or to get ahead of an anticipated influx of applications.
“It just needed to be done for a good long time,” Woolstenhulme said. “… Conversations about subdivisions, how we want Oakley to look in the future, have been a long time coming.”
The city paused almost all new development, she said, allowing applications for small home improvements to proceed but not those for new home construction or from landowners looking to subdivide their property.