North Bend is close to ending a nine-year building moratorium, but has to wait at least another month.

The North Bend City Council voted Tuesday, Feb. 3, to extend the moratorium into early April, but the city is accepting and processing development permits.

The ban, which had been set to expire in mid-February, was extended to April 7, because additional work is needed on the city’s water mitigation system.

“Our hopes are that we won’t need to go that long,” said Duncan Wilson, North Bend’s city administrator.

The ban was enacted in 1999 after the city learned it had insufficient water rights to support further development. Since then, it has been working with the Washington State Department of Ecology, which grants water rights, to secure additional water sources.

The new system will move water from Seattle Public Utilities’ Hobo Springs in the Cedar River Watershed to Boxley Creek, which feeds into Snoqualmie River’s South Fork. North Bend will also draw water from the Sallal Water Association.

The city will lift the moratorium after Puget Sound Energy connects power to part of the monitoring system.