Beverly Hills Approves Plan to Save Water : Drought: The city will seek a 20% cut in use, with progressive penalties for noncompliance. The March storms allowed the city to ease conservation goals.

The Beverly Hills City Council was able to do this week what it was unable to do near the peak of the crippling California drought: pass a water conservation plan.

After several hearings on mandatory water rationing, the council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a plan that seeks an overall 20% reduction in water use and slaps big water users with progressive penalties.

The water-rationing plan will require Beverly Hills residents in single-family homes to immediately reduce water consumption by 20%. Tenants in multifamily units and commercial and industrial users face a 15% reduction.

Customers who fail to meet the reduction goals must pay a penalty, with water rates jumping from $2 a unit to $7.50 per unit of excess use. Based on water usage in housing during 1989, residents will be allotted 57 units, which is 42,636 gallons, per two-month billing period. Each unit is 748 gallons.

The water cutback goals are significantly less stringent than those originally considered by the city two weeks ago, when a 30% reduction was discussed. The steady rains and rising snowpack--which the Metropolitan Water District is calling another “March miracle”--allowed the city to ease the conservation goals.

“We feel that we are in a good enough position right now to go with (the lower) rates,” said City Manager Mark Scott.

Even so, heavy water users, such as many large estate owners north of Sunset, could face up to a 50% increase in water bills if they fail to meet conservation limits and maintain excessive water levels. For example, a homeowner using 190 water units per billing period (at 748 gallons per unit) who continues to use that amount would face a $500 water bill, compared to a current fee of $255.

Scott said that Beverly Hills may not have to pay a $60,000 penalty assessed by MWD for the city’s failure to meet a mandated 10% cutback in water usage for the month of February if the city is able to meet its water reduction goals from now on. The council also authorized the creation of an appeals board to review requests for hardship exemptions from the penalties imposed under the new water rates.

Several apartment owners told the council that they are unhappy with the plan because they will be unfairly penalized if their tenants exceed water conservation goals. Although the plan shifts the burden of paying penalties to the tenants if the landlords install low-flow toilets and shower heads in apartment buildings, the property owners say the cost of installing the fixtures is not offset by the measure.

“Why have complex formulas that nobody can figure out,” said landlord Bob Magid. “We should go back to a system where if you use it, you pay for it. Owners of multifamily units are being discriminated against under this plan.”

However, Councilman Maxwell Salter said landlords must understand that the plan was triggered by ecological, and not economic, concerns.

“This has nothing to do with money,” Salter said. “This has to do with conservation.”