The City of San Diego started a ‘grass replacement’ program last week:
City of San Diego customers can receive a rebate of up to $1.50 per square foot for residential sites that replace existing grass with water wise landscaping and converting their overhead sprinkler system with micro-irrigation. Preliminary site inspection and pre-approval is required to confirm your qualification. Do not start a landscape renovation project without the pre-approval if you wish to receive a rebate.
http://www.sandiego.gov/water/conservation/rebates/grassreplacement.shtml
Others can get $2.00/sf or more in rebates from the MWD:
Turf grass is one of the most water-intensive plants in your landscape. Its high water use and frequent maintenance make it a time-consuming and expensive yard option. In fact, the average residential customer spends about 60% of their water on outdoor irrigation. By changing turf to a California Friendly™ yard of drought tolerant plants you can save water and money.
To help with turf removal projects, rebates are available for $2.00 or more per square foot of turf removed. This increased turf removal rebate is being provided in response to Governor Edmund G Brown Jr.’s emergency drought declaration.
Before you begin removing any turf, you must apply for and receive project start approval.
http://www.socalwatersmart.com/index.php/qualifyingproducts/turfremoval?p=res
We were approved last month and are in the process right now of changing it out at our rental property. Looking forward to no more mowing or edging again. Wonder how waterwise yards will effect property values?
I think it will be a ‘feel-good’ benefit for those who gave up the dream of seeing little johnny running around on the grass.
Another example are the houses with solar panels.
Do buyers pay more for the house just because of the panels? Or do they just add another ‘feel-good’ to the overall package? With the lack of comps these days, the ‘feel-good’ tank needs to be mostly full for buyers to pay close to list.
Low inventory= fewer sales=FEWER COMPS. Of course. Never spared a thought for that before.
Nothing like laying down carpet on the lot you pay a premium for. I’m gonna go tree-hugger here and say turf is lame, looks cheap, and does nothing for the water table.
Got a quote for 2000 sf of turf replacement and it was $20,000. So NO even if they kick in $3000 incentives I’m not doing this.
Could always try drought resistant African Kikuyu grass? (turns brown instead of green when it doesn’t rain but doesn’t die).
With the rebate you cannot plant any “turf like” plants. So not sure if that would include the Africa grass? Daniel, was that quote for artificial grass? We are replacing with all waterwise plants and mulch for much less.
There is a table to calculate the value of existing solar panels on a home.
I don’t think exchanging real for fake grass is the best intention.
Going with raw dirt plus xeriscape is the answer.
Or do like they do in Phoenix, the gravel front yard.
Got a quote from Green Turf out of Moreno Valley. $6.00-$6.50 a sq ft installed. That wasn’t the most expensive turf but it looks nice once installed. Our neighbors across the street have it through them and they referred them to me. Can’t wait until they approve my application. It’s taking so long. I’ve had my application in already for close to a month when it was only supposed to take 2 weeks. Plan on putting it in prior to putting the house on the market. It has to add enough of a value to see in return especially after the rebate. There are some places selling used grass too that they remove from indoor facilities. Those are around $5sq ft. I’m thinking of removing the bark in our backyard around our pool and adding some of that since I won’t get the rebate and they are small enough areas that you won’t be able to tell the difference. The total to install was around $5,000 and with a $1500 rebate it’s worth it. I’ll save that much money in 1-2 years of watering our grass. The only thing using water now will be a few plants that are on drip and our pool from evaporation during the year. We have a full time residence out in Buckeye AZ and I wish they would offer the same rebates. I’ve been wanting to change out the little bit of grass we have out here since the water company gouges us. I was in shock with our first bill when it was more then our entire months bill in California with a pool and landscaping and it was for 20 days with $0 in water usage. We went from spending on average of $80 per month with turf in the front yard and a pool to spending $250 per month in Arizona with virtually no landscaping and no pool. I guess when your bill has $0 in water usage you can’t really conserve anymore water so the likely thing to do is charge the person $100 just to send them a bill. That was our first bill when we moved to Arizona and the water company gets away with it. So the more water I can conserve in Arizona the better because it takes away from the crooked water companies profits.