photo credit: City of Cloverdale

The proposed new Esmeralda development in Cloverdale faced a key hearing this week focused on water.

The plan for Esmeralda's "village" calls for up to 605 new housing units.

That would be a mix of single family homes, senior apartments, and townhouses.

Plus a hotel with up to 200 rooms, along with commercial space, all on a 266-acre site near the Cloverdale Airport.

The land used to part of a lumber mill complex. Currently it's open space.

The size of the proposed development classifies Esmeralda as a subdivision, and with plans for over 500 units, the project is required by state law to have a water supply assessment and verification.

Now, Cloverdale's city council has signed off on those required reports, four to one.

"Thank you, and I look forward to working further on this project and more town halls," said Todd Lands, Cloverdale's current mayor, following the vote. "We'll discuss that and set 'em up with the community. And thank you everyone here for your comments and your concerns...you're definitely heard and we want to make sure that we can go through this with everybody to make this project successful."

Lands' remarks at the December 10th meeting followed a long back and forth discussion on the water reports between the council, Esmeralda representatives and consultants, and the public.

The water supply assessment estimates Esmeralda will use around 76 million gallons per year if fully built out in 2040.

As comparison, the city of Cloverdale used about five times that amount in 2024. The city's water use over the past 20 years peaked in 2013 at 569 million gallons a year.

According to the assessment, Cloverdale will be able to absorb the added demand from Esmeralda through 2045.

That's when total water demand is expected to reach near 700 million gallons a year.

The City of Cloverdale is a pre-1914 senior water rights holder. That means California water law gives Cloverdale priority claim to water over other nearby communities, and the city is entitled to draw 910 million gallons a year from the Russian River, but that hasn't protected it entirely from curtailments.

Cloverdale was ordered to limit water use by state regulators for the first time during the drought in 2021, and the water supply assessment shows Cloverdale's normal demand - with Esmeralda's use factored in - could outstrip supply during dry years, triggering city wide water conservation plans.

Brad Arnold, with EKI, the water consultancy that authored the assessment, said their findings show Cloverdale will have sufficient water supply under normal conditions to meet the city's needs through 2045, even with Esmeralda built.

"...[The] analysis indicates that Cloverdale has sufficient and reliable water supplies to meet the projected demands, including with the project through [that] 2045 required planning horizon under a range of hydrologic conditions," said Arnold. "Droughts, dry years, multiple dry ears, normal conditions, stuff like that. And it's important to note that sufficient does not mean that there will never be curtailments again. It doesn't mean there won't be restrictions again. We know that droughts unfortunately, are gonna become more commonplace, more frequent over time."

Prior to the vote, for over an hour, Cloverdale residents like Suzanne Black, addressed the council with divided opinion on questions and concerns about the Esmeralda project as a whole, and the water assessment in particular.

"I'm keeping an open mind," Black said. "I'm not afraid of rich people and big houses, and progress, but I don't think those questions can get answered in three minutes."

Public support for Esmeralda remains focused on the potential to invigorate Cloverdale as a whole and the local economy.

Concern about Esmeralda centers on water scarcity, as well as things like the permitting timelines, and the site's industrial history as a Louisiana Pacific mill and Masonite lumber yard.

While the Cloverdale city council approved the water supply assessment and verification for the Esmeralda development, allowing the proposed development to move forward in the planning process, state water regulators could still step in to curtail Cloverdale's water use during future droughts.

With the Potter Valley Project possibly soon dismantled, further limiting water supplies, Cloverdale could turn to methods like aquifer recharge, or the city could build new water storage tanks to bolster water supplies in dry periods.