Water supply planning.

(1) Existing law requires a city or county that determines a project is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act to identify any public water system that may supply water for the project and to request those public water systems to prepare a specified water supply assessment. If no public water system is identified, the city or county is required to prepare the water supply assessment. Existing law defines "project" for purposes of the above provisions as, among other things, a proposed residential development of more than 500 dwelling units or a shopping center or business establishment, commercial office building, hotel or motel, industrial, manufacturing, or processing plant, industrial park, or mixed-use project, that is of a specified size, or a project that would demand an amount of water equivalent to, or greater than, the amount of water required by a 500 dwelling unit project. This bill would revise that definition of "project" to provide that specified business, commercial, hotel or motel, industrial, manufacturing, and mixed-use developments are within the scope of that definition only if the projected water demand of the development would be equivalent to, or greater than, the amount of water required by a 500 dwelling unit project, as determined by the public water system. The bill, by revising the definition of "project," would impose new duties on local agencies with respect to determining whether a project is subject to the water supply assessment requirements, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.