The Gainesville City Council voted to prepare for future growth by approving land acquisition for several water projects.

Following an executive session at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, council members authorized the public utilities department to spend $750,000 to buy four parcels for future tank storage and pump stations.

“We have a master plan for our water distribution system, and we identify line sizes and general locations for future tanks and booster pump stations,” said Tim Collins, assistant director for public utilities. “We then go out and find specific sites and talk with the owners, and this allows us to move forward with purchasing.”

Off Cleveland Highway, south of Nopone Road, one parcel of land will feature a booster pump and ground storage with a capacity of 2 million gallons.

“When projects such as Cedar Creek and Glades Farm (reservoirs) come on line, we need to be able to move water into the North Hall and Clermont zone,” Collins said.

At the intersection of Ga. 52 and Ga. 365, public utilities staff will raise the height of the current tank, which is below the standard level at other Gainesville tanks.

Another parcel, owned by Glades Farm LLC, will hold a booster pump on Ga. 52 north of the Chattahoochee River.

Public utilities staff have also set aside funding for a fourth location on Ga. 60 near Candler Road, which will put an elevated storage tank in the lower water pressure area of Chestnut Mountain.

Wiedeman and Singleton, which updated the city’s water system master plan in 2008, and Jacobs Engineering Group, which provided additional analysis in 2010, both noted the four general locations for storage tanks and pump stations.

“This future infrastructure is needed for the future growth,” Collins said. “With everything as it is today, we don’t need it immediately, but we need the land for the future and don’t want to wait.”

The funding, set aside in the department’s capital improvements plan, pulls $375,000 from fiscal year 2011 and $375,000 from fiscal year 2012, which starts July 1.

“We don’t need to build these now, but we need to plan ahead for when we will need this land in the next few years,” said Mayor Ruth Bruner. “We knew ahead that this would be a need and set the money aside in two budget years, which is good. I hope we can come in under what we budgeted.”