To enhance efforts to fight the historic drought, LADWP is now offering an incentive of $3.75 per square foot, up from $3 per square foot, to residents who choose to get rid of their water-guzzling lawns and replace them with drought-resistant vegetation or other water-wise landscaping options. According to Mayor Garcetti, this is the “most generous incentive ever” offered by the city.
“Los Angeles residents have made our city a leader in water conservation — today we’re using the same amount of water as we did 40 years ago, with 1 million more people — but with our current water crisis, we need to do even more,” Garcetti said.
Approximately 40-60 percent of water use in Los Angeles is outdoors. To help conserve water,
LADWP encourages customers with turf areas to plant California Friendly® species that require
less water, once established. In place of thirsty and high maintenance turf, put in drought-resistant and native plants, mulch, and permeable pathways to save money while conserving water.
Landscapers can select from a rich and diverse plant palette of California Friendly® trees,
perennials, groundcover, vines, succulents and shrubs. There are also ways to enhance a
landscape with non-vegetative groundcover or paving materials like decomposed granite, pea
gravel, rocks, pebbles, mulch and wood chips. LADWP customers can also receive a rebate for the installation of landscape improvements within the right-of-way (parkway).
For the residential turf replacement rebate program, all applications must be submitted online through the SoCal Water$mart website. Effective November 1, 2014, LADWP’s single family residential program provides $3.75 per square foot for the first 1,500 square feet, and $2.00 per square foot thereafter with no cap for replacing turf with water wise landscaping features. There are incentives for commercial customers as well.
Visit ladwp.com/cf and ladwp.cafriendlylandscaping.com to find out more about the incentive programs, workshops, and how to design and install California friendly landscaping, irrigation methods and equipment that will help you to water your landscape more efficiently, and suggestions on how to easily and effectively maintain your garden.
Share your own actions and ideas by using the hashtag #DroughtHack and do your part to reduce water use and conserve resources!