We are in a severe drought as categorized by the State of California Department of Water Resources.  We like them for play and their beauty but we need to get some perspective.  Having a small lawn to play on and roll around in is fine.  These usually happen in the back yards.  Front lawns are dumb.  No one hangs out on them, no one plays on them.  They are just there to provide some green and some extra work for homeowners to do on the weekends.  May as well paint some dirt.  When we make a decision to put in a law we are introducing an artificial fresh water marsh that just shouldn’t ever exist in this part of the world.  There are better options, we should know better.  After all, we live in the future.

HOA Boards, encourage the minimization of these artificial fresh water marshes.  The amount of potable water we put on them is silly and wasteful.  Take advantage of the information found on our municipal water districts websites and the materials they freely give out in the interest of conservation.  Provide them to your residents and encourage them to implement them by giving them breaks on their association dues for being water wise homeowners, don’t forget you are a not for profit organization!  I know that lowering dues sounds foreign to you but if you had more and more people switching to native landscapes maintenance would become a thing of the past.  There would be less ugly landscapes to worry about, less noisy equipment on the weekends and even cleaner air.  That means the energy you put into policing and ‘self helping’ these residents would be a thing of the past.  That means the only thing you would have to worry about would be getting together to squash the latest submittal to paint a house Cyan and Yellow.