The Woodway City Council on Monday rejected a council member’s proposed temporary moratorium on issuing new building permits that would require installation of a water meter.
Council Member David Russell first proposed the temporary moratorium at the end of the council’s Sept. 11 meeting, floating the idea as a possible solution to bring down water use in Woodway amid McLennan County’s continued drought conditions. After lengthy public comments and council debate, the council voted 4-3 to end its discussion of the proposal. Council members Russell, Gayle Avant and David Keyston voted to continue discussion on the proposal at a later meeting. Council members Janell Gilman, Storey Cook, John Williams and Mayor Amine Qourzal voted to end discussions.
About 80 people attended Monday’s meeting, taking up every seat in the council chambers and leaving many spectators to watch from the City Hall lobby. Twenty-three people addressed the council during an hourlong public comment period, with 14 people speaking against the moratorium and seven speaking in favor of the city repurposing the current Woodway Family Center into a senior center and. Two also spoke on unrelated issues.
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Those who spoke against the moratorium cautioned the council against stifling future growth in Woodway, which they said would be stopped if no new building projects were allowed. Resident Randy Reid also said many other cities in McLennan County have restricted use of lawn sprinklers to two days a week, while Woodway allows for three, questioning why the council is not considering changing water restrictions.
During council discussions, Russell said the moratorium would not be permanent and would only last as long as needed under the drought conditions. Russell said he agrees with many of the people who spoke against the moratorium. He said he does not want to implement it but is concerned about the water level at Lake Waco. The lake is about 11 feet below normal. Woodway operates several water wells, which it supplements with Lake Waco water it buys from the city of Waco.
Cook said the city should be more focused on conserving water in the city’s wells, and Williams said it is on residents to conserve water before placing the blame for water use on builders.
Qourzal said he would vote against the moratorium because he does not want to stop economic progress in Woodway.
Qourzal also said that if the drought conditions worsen and water restrictions have to be tightened, he would be open to revisiting the proposal.
After about a half hour of discussions and civil arguments among the council, Keyston put forward a motion to table the discussion for a future date after more facts could be gathered about how the moratorium would affect water rates.
But the majority of the council voted against tabling the discussion, ending its consideration of a moratorium for the time being. No action item that would have put the proposal into effect was on Monday’s council agenda, only discussion of the proposal.
After the meeting, Russell said he just wanted to make sure that a discussion was had about water use in Woodway.
“There’s a water issue,” Russell said. “I like to get ahead of the game.”
Russell also said he is against implementing more water restrictions. He said he wants to consider something other than telling residents to water their yards less.
