California drought: Does the Bay Area have enough water for new housing?
When Contra Costa County supervisors last summer signed off on 125 new homes slated for 30 acres of grazing land in the oak-dotted Tassajara Valley, they were warned water was going to be an issue. Officials with the East Bay Municipal Utility District made clear they opposed extending the agency’s service boundary to send water to the proposed single-family subdivision just east of Danville, especially given the ongoing drought. Supervisors pushed ahead anyway, and the utility district promptly sued to halt development plans. … The fight over Tassajara Parks illustrates the challenges the Bay Area faces in its push to build many more homes to ease its housing affordability crisis, at the same time local water systems are under strain by a warming climate and years of drought.