Residents in Cove Beach have been vocal about county code changes.

The Falcon Cove Beach Water District Board is pushing back on efforts to increase flexibility for development in unincorporated Clatsop County.

In November, the county Board of Commissioners approved amendments to the county’s Land and Water Development and Use Code aimed at increasing housing at all price points. The amendments add definitions and parameters for higher-density housing in rural parts of the county and remove barriers to developing certain types of housing.

In Coastal Residential zones, which include Cove Beach, the amendments add attached dwellings as a permitted use — a new housing type the water district has said it will not sign off on connections for.

Denise Davis, the president of the water district’s board, said the district has a longstanding policy to only sign off on water connections for one code-compliant, single-family residential dwelling per parcel. The county defines an attached dwelling as a single-family dwelling that shares a wall with another property on a separate parcel.

“What that looks like is folks who would like to develop new builds, housing, they’ll be limited to what the water district supports, which is one single-family residential dwelling unit per parcel,” Davis said. “And so we’re delighted to support that, which we believe, from our consultations with our engineer, is totally sustainable and which will ensure that we have plenty of water during all seasons for all of our constituents.”

One of the water district’s main concerns is the potential strain higher-density housing could put on the area’s limited infrastructure and landscape, which is prone to landslides and erosion.

“This 2-mile stretch is naturally delicate,” Davis said. “It’s geologically fragile and not equipped with infrastructure, with the exception of the water district’s pipelines and gravel roads — narrow gravel and dirt roads. And this is by design.”

Rick Smith, the board’s treasurer, added that all of the houses in the neighborhood are on septic systems. The water district doesn’t have the capacity to put a waste management system in place.

This isn’t the first time the water district has limited new water connections.

In 2018, the district declared an emergency and placed a moratorium on new connections after reporting that water production levels had been at record lows during the late summer months for several years. The moratorium drew criticism from some neighbors, who questioned the motives of the board and conducted their own independent studies and data analysis.

The moratorium didn’t limit all new development, though. The water district’s policies prohibit private wells, but the county’s code also allows several other alternative sources of water, including springs, rivers, streams, ponds and rainwater catchment systems, provided they can generate a minimum of 250 gallons of potable water per day. One property owner opted for a rainwater catchment system during the moratorium, allowing for development to continue.

Gail Henrikson, the county’s community development director, said those alternatives are also options moving forward under the new code amendments, although they could impact the process and timeline for development. Use of springs, rivers, streams and ponds requires a permit from the Oregon Water Resources Department and a potability test from a certified water lab. Use of a rainwater catchment system requires approval by county building codes.

Although the county’s code allows for bed-and-breakfasts, RV parks and some other structures as conditional uses, the recent amendments don’t add any multifamily dwellings, like duplexes or triplexes.

Still, Davis said she sees limiting connections to single-family residential units as a matter of fairness to water users.

“Our role (as commissioners) is to protect that precious water resource and make sure that we can sustainably distribute it to all of our customers and ensure that we don’t have a moratorium again because of poor water production as a result of too much water use, too many connections, too many families, too many houses or multifamily units,” she said.