As drought-stricken Arizona bakes in searing heat, the Scottsdale City Council unanimously agreed this week to ban natural grass in front of future single-family homes in an effort to conserve water.
The new ordinance will apply to new houses constructed or permitted after August 15.
More than 500 households in the rural Arizona desert are set to be without running water starting January 1, 2023, as first reported by NBC News. The homes, located in Rio Verde Foothills—an affluent, unincorporated community in the state’s Maricopa County, were built without complying to Arizona’s usual 100-year water supply requirement.
In front of the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale, there’s a parking lot on one side, and off to the other side, there’s a space for the Scottsdale Trolley to stop. Between those areas is a patch of gravel and drought-tolerant desert plants. Six months ago, the senior center’s little xeriscape garden was about 3,000 square feet of turf. But it wasn’t intended as a sports field or a picnic area, it was really just a decorative space to divide two sides of the parking lot.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
