NORTH COUNTY - At least two water officials said this month that they may consider ways to restrict construction in their districts next year in response to mounting pressure from disgruntled water customers who say they won't conserve water until new development is curbed.

"There has been a fairly common response to the calls for voluntary conservation, and that has essentially been: 'Why should we conserve just so you can sell water meters so developers can build new homes?' " Valley Center Municipal Water District's general manager, Gary Arant, said in a Dec. 17 report to the board of directors.

So far, angry customers haven't banded together in opposition, but Arant and Rainbow Municipal Water District Manager Dave Seymour said this week that their agencies have been bombarded with calls from individuals arguing that it was unfair for districts to issue new meters during drought conditions.

Together, the rural water districts encompass nearly 115,000 unincorporated acres in Valley Center, Bonsall, Rainbow and parts of Fallbrook.

Agricultural use accounts for nearly 80 percent of the districts' total water use.

In addition to the mandatory 30 percent cutback in water to agricultural customers beginning Jan. 1, all North County water districts have asked ratepayers to reduce their water use by at least 10 percent voluntarily, meaning shorter showers and limited sprinkler use.

Seymour said the most frequent response he hears from ratepayers being asked to conserve "is along the lines of, 'Yeah, I'll start conserving water when you stop issuing new meters.' And there's a lot of validity in that statement, but every month you hear about some new large development being approved."

Still, Seymour said he's not in favor of halting all development projects.

"Development and building is a huge part of our local economy as well, so we don't want to destroy that, either. Reasonable and responsible growth would be a good place to start," he said.

Under the Interim Agricultural Water Program administered by the Metropolitan Water District, the main water supplier for the region, growers are the first to receive mandated cutbacks because they receive discounted water in exchange for interruptible service during drought situations.

Water agency officials have repeatedly said they would transfer stored water to residential and commercial customers to avoid mandatory cuts next year, but Arant has warned that there is a possibility those customers will also be subject to cuts in future years.

"We've avoided that for 2008, but in 2009, well, we'll see," he said last month.

Meanwhile, there have been no calls from Metropolitan or the San Diego County Water Authority, the county's regional wholesaler, for a moratorium on new meter sales for developments. In the December report, Arant said the agencies are counting on "significant levels of voluntary conservation to avoid mandatory rationing."

Officials from the Valley Center and Rainbow districts said that they appreciate water customers' objections to development, but that as local water districts, they are limited in what they can do to manage growth because they lack land-planning authority.

Consequently, many of the restraints that Seymour said he would like to see placed on new development during water shortages - such as regulations on landscaping and irrigation -- fall outside of his jurisdiction.

Furthermore, local districts would have a difficult time imposing restrictive growth policies, including a moratorium on meter sales, without support from Metropolitan and the Water Authority, Arant said.

But water agencies might not see as much demand for new service next year because of a slump in the housing market that has slowed development.

County home prices tumbled more in October than those in any major metropolitan area in the nation, according to the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report released last week, and most real estate agents and analysts have said they expect the decline to continue well into 2008.

For now, district officials said they are taking modest steps to try to slow new development in the face of dwindling water supplies, such as not acquiring new service areas and telling developers that while they are free to move forward with projects, local water supplies may not be available in the future.

"I don't have all the answers, but if we don't see an end to this current drought, we are all going to have to find out what the answers are pretty quick," Seymour said.

Contact staff writer Darryn Bennett at (760) 740-5420 or dmbennett@nctimes.com.