City of Tucson plans to forbid grass in some places

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The City of Tucson is planning to restrict where businesses and homebuilders plant grass.

This idea is to save water here in the desert because watering turf uses a lot of resources. The plan calls for using desert tolerant plants and low water landscaping to replace what the city calls non-functional turf.

This would not affect home lawns or athletic fields. It would affect places where grass is simply planted as decoration.

The city memo on the plan describes non-functional grass this way:

-Grass areas with any single dimension of eight feet or less

-Grass areas exceeding a 4-to-1, or 25%, slope

-Grass areas that are not accessible by paved pathways and/or are restricted by physical barriers that prohibit accessibility

-Grass areas installed closer than ten feet to a street and/or in front entryways to residential neighborhoods or subdivisions where other recreational amenities do not exist

-Grass areas that are not utilized for active recreational purposes

Prohibitions on non-functional turf would not include areas of schools, parks, sports fields, dog parks, or golf courses, or similar areas that use turf to support active recreation.

The plan would affect new developments. Tucson Water Director John Kmiec says his staff has already been talking to builders about the idea.

“They have had meetings with some of the stakeholders in the development community and no real opposition has taken place or been voiced. Non functional turf is somewhat strongly restricted in some of the landscape codes that are already out there.”

While the current plan affects new developments, the city may order commercial landowners to remove existing non-functional grass starting about three years from now.