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Under a plan that could get approval tonight, every house built within Mesa del Sol would be charged $1,250 to receive water service.

Developer Forest City Covington, once opposed to paying for the water rights that would bring water to the community in far southeast Albuquerque, now sees it as an investment in the city's future.

"We think participating with the water authority and increasing the water supply for this region is a worthwhile endeavor," said Harry Relkin, Forest City's director of land development.

The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority board tonight will vote on an agreement to extend water service to the 13,000-acre development — at no added cost to existing rate-payers.

Mark Sanchez, the utility's executive director, said the development agreement would provide water service to the entire project south of Albuquerque International Sunport, to be paid for by Forest City.

During negotiations earlier this year, Forest City officials maintained they would not have to pay for water rights, citing a 1993 agreement with the city.

Relkin said the issue centered around buying so-called "paper water rights." Water rights, he said, are granted through the Office of the State Engineer and authorize someone to utilize the public's water. Relkin said the state has "overappropriated" water rights.

"There's more of these paper water rights than there is actual water," he said.

Ultimately, they agreed upon a plan in which the development will be charged for actual water — not water rights — with the money being put into a fund that will go toward developing future water resources.

In this case, the utility will assess a $1,250 one-time fee for water for every residential unit built on the property. That fee would likely be assessed to the home builder and passed on to the consumer.

In total, Sanchez said the development's water could be valued at $60 million — a figure likely to rise with inflation as the development is completed in phases."It's probably much greater than that," Sanchez said.

The plan also puts a greater water conservation requirement upon the development.

Homes within Mesa del Sol will be required to consume no more than 180 gallons of water each — about half of what homes in the rest of the utility's district consume, Sanchez said.

"Conservation is one of the ways we're going to be able to serve the population in the future," Sanchez said. "We must bring our consumption down. New development is fairly capable of doing that with low-flow fixtures, recirculating fixtures, limited outdoor landscaping, things like that."

City Councilor Michael Cadigan, a member of the utility's board, said having new developments pay for their own water rights is the only way to manage sustainable communities. That money can be used to pay for new water resources when needed.

"San Juan Chama (water), those water rights may not be enough for a new development," Cadigan said of the city's existing water source. "We may need to buy new water rights."