I lay the grass.
Sin City officials are pushing for a nationwide ban on “non-functional” grass – a lawn that is not meant for people to walk on – while trying to boost conservation efforts amid drought.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority recently estimated that the Las Vegas metropolitan area has nearly eight square miles of “dysfunctional turf” that no one walks on, including street medians, housing developments and office parks.
“The only people who have ever set foot on the grass in the middle of a road system are the people who cut the grass,” said Justin Jones, a commissioner in Clark County, Las Vegas, who serves on the authority’s board.
The council is calling on the Nevada state legislature to ban decorative grass.
Jones called the ornamental grass “dumb,” given the limited water supply of the desert region.
Removing that purely cosmetic vegetation would reduce water consumption in the area by about 15% per year – saving about 14 gallons of water per person each day, the group estimates.
This would help Vegas as it struggles in increasingly dry conditions, including a record 240 consecutive days with no measurable rainfall last year.
The agency is working to encourage conservation in a city synonymous with the excess of 2003, when it banned developers from installing lawns that suck water into new developments.
While the lawns of the existing properties have been preserved, the agency is offering their owners $ 3 per square foot to uproot their lawns.
Jones assured the owners that their legislative proposal does not target their construction sites.
“To be clear, we’re not coming after your homeowner’s average yard,” he said.
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