Antecedentes. Tucson

8/13/2019 Antecedentes. Tucson

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rought conditionsin many parts ofthe country haveforced communitiesto restrict water usein a variety of ways,such as limiting thedays and times that

residents and businesses may watertheir lawns. Other communities seek-ing greater reductions in water use haveenacted "xeriscape," or water-wise land-scape, ordinances that hmit the typesor quantities of plants and grasses thatmay he used to landscape properties."The xeriscape principles in some C(jm-munity ordinances means doing awaywith the use of grass, which demands alot of water, and moving toward nativeplants, more mulching and drip irriga-tion systems," says Buck Ahhey, professorin the Sch(X}l of Land scape Ar chit ectu reat Louisiana State University and notedauthor on landscape ordinances.

The term "xeriscape," coined in 1981,isa com hination of the G reek word xeros,which means dry, and landscape, and isa registered trademark of Denver Water,the water utility for the city and countyof Denver. The term came out of a taskforce, which included Denver Waterand local members of the academic andgreen industries, that developed sevenprinciples of landscaping to conservewater and protect the environment.

Since then, many cities and countiesin the Western and Southern Uni tedStates have adopted the principlesand required residential and commer-cial developers to follow them whendesigning their landscapes. While mostxeriscape ordinances such as thosein Tucson, Ariz.; Lafayette, Colo.; andVolusia County, Fla., are directed atlandscape design, the aim is decidedly atsaving water.Where lawns are rare

By the time Tucson, Ariz., passedits xeriscape ordinance in 1990 andidentified landscape requirements forcommercial and multi-family housing, itwas all but a formality. Homeowners andbusinesses in the city had begun usingnative plants that required less irrigationin the 1970s when traditional landscapesincluded lots of grass and high-water-use

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plants . "As peak demand concernsrequired conservation measures,thpublic naturally begantochange theway they landscaped," says FernandoMolina, conservation program managefor Tucson.

Tucson's ordinance allows landscapedesigners to group plants accordingwater requiretiients. high-water-usezone, called an oasis, is permitted, butit can no t be more tha n 10 percent ofthe total landscaped atea. Outside ofthat atea, only low-water-use plantsare permitted. The city's official planlist matches that of the state, and anadvisory board reviews requests to addor remove plants frotn the Ust. "Design-ers are really beginning to deal with theprohlem in creative ways," Molina says"The secret to it is using native plants fora lot of color and variety."

Builders are required tosubmitlandscape p lan to make sure they complywith the land use code. Once construc-tion is complete, the city's DevelopmentServices Department perfotmsafina

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In Denver, a homeowner planted Dragon's BloodSedum,characterized by reddish flowers thatbloom in June and Jtily, instead of grass on a sideyard. In the foreground, ornamental grasses,including Blue Fescue, line the walkway.

inspection to ensure that the landscapeinstalled matches the approved plan.Review of plans and inspections arepaid for out of fees and the general fund.Tucson also offers a training prof^ramfor landscapers and designers throughthe University of Arizona CooperativeExtension. "This is important hecauselandscapers really control a lot of wateruse, and they need the skills to he ableto do their job to make customers happyand still save water," Molina says.

Tucson's per capita water usage ratehas decreased as a result of its landscap-ing; ordinance. In 1974, the city's percapita water usage rate was ahout 205gallons per person per day, and now therate has stabilized at ahout 165 gallonsper person per day. "We attribute sus-taining that k)w usage rate primarily tothe change in landscape," Molina says."Tucson looks really different than theold days. Now, a front yard lawn is veryrare here."A model ordinance

In nearby Colorado, a severe droughtin summer 2002 motivated Erie andLafayette, situated between Denver andBoulder, to draft a water-efficient lan d-scape code. The cities secured a $32,000grant from the Colorado Department ofLocal Affairs to develop a model ordi-nance for the state.

The intent of the ordinance, adoptedby hoth cities in March 2004, is to regu-late water use throug h efficient landsca pedesign rather than water used annually."If we end up back in a drough t, this typeof landscape can survive with limitedwater and not die like ir did in 2002,"says Phillip P atterson, planning manag erfor Lafayette.

Much like Tucson's xeriscape ordi-nance, Lafayette's requires landscapedareas to be divided into individuallyirrigated hydro zones high, medium,low and very low. A "high" hydro zoneaverages 20 gallons per square foot perseason. Medium is ahout 10 gallons, lowis thre e to five gallons, and very low onlyneeds water to get established and thendoes not require regular irrigation. "Theintent is to group plants based on theirwater needs within those individual

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Deuelopers for a residential neighborhood in Lafayette, Colo., submitted the plan above to comply withthe city's new landscape ordinance. The development consists of 6-34 acres and contains 48 attachedsingle-family and six detached single-family dwellings. The average irrigation as calculated per the waterbudget for the development was 9.6 gallons per square foot of landscaped area per season, which fallswell below the city's 15-gflllon-oer-square-foot limit.

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We realized that Blue Grass sod wasgood at rebounding following a droughtand that it was a really appropriate mate-rial for many uses, so we allowed for thisin some places and made accommoda'tions with more water efficient materialin others."

Lafayette's landscape design pro-visions are targeted to commercialdevelopment as well as residential sub-division-type construction, where land-scape design is already heavily regulated.The ordinance requires a minimum 15percent landscaped area for commercialbuildings. "Many commercial buildersare going to save a tremendous amounton water use," Patterson says. "It's morewt)rk up front on the design, but in theend it's better landscaping and saveswater."

Builders must submit a hydro zonemap, and the n the city verifies that th eplants are matched to the appropriatezone. "First thing we do is have themshow us, using a water calculation, thatthe landscaped area, on average, is notgoing to use more than 15 gallons persquare ftxjt per season of irriga tion w ater

In the zonesVolusia County, Fla., also built its

landscape ordinance around zones toallow for some sod. "The St. Augustinegrass, which most people plant heretakes a lot of water, and people tendto over-water it as well," says StephenKintner, environmental managemendirector for Volusia County.

After determining that St. Augustinegrass only needs about one inch of waterpet week, the county set i ts ordinance torequire that one-half of a yard or otherlandscaped area can use one inch peweek of water. Another quarter can useone-half inch each week, and the last25 percent can get one-quarter inch ofwater per week. (No grass meets thatstandard.)

Like other communities, dwindlingwater supplies proved the impetus forthe ordinance. "We have what 's called asole-source aquifer," Kintner says. "Basi-cally all of our w ater comes from the rainthat falls in the county." That typicallyhas been enough, hut since the mid1960s with soaring population growthnew development and an increase inthe per capita consumptii>n of water, theamount of available water for county usehas been declining steadily.

Adopted in May 2004 and imple-mented July 1, Volusia County's water-wise ordinance took three years to honeand implement. "We knew we needed totalk to people about this, so we laid outthe framework for the ordinance andthen took it tin the road," Kintner says.

The county met with target stakeholders, including developers, homebuildersirrigation con tractors, city organizationscity managers, environmental groupsthe sod industry, homeowners associations and realtors. "We had at leas25 very public hearings and perhapanother 25 meetings with individualand small groups," Kintner says. "Everybody was worried about how it was goingto impact the m, so we had to answer a loof questions."

While existing landscaping iexcluded, Volusia County's ordinanceapplies to all new construction and relandscaping or landscape expansion foprivate and public buildings, includinghomes. "We used lots of pictures of whayards would look like with this type ofordinance to educate tbe public," Kintner says, "and they saw that it was differ-ent, but not bad."


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is used for irrigation, and itto save 25 to 50 percent of the waterdemand for new homes as a result of theordinance. That's going to be at least 9million gallons a day of saved water the equivalent of water usage for about26,000 homes, Kintner says.

The county can draw a maximum of72 million gallons a day from the aquifer,and currently it draws about 55 milliongallons a day. We are kind of boxed in,so we had to do something creative.Kintner says. This is only one part oithe solution, but it buys us some timeand takes a little pressure off the envi-ronment. People will eventually learnthat they can have a beautiful yard thatdoes not require the volumes of water weuse today.

As more communities face watershortages, they may find that landscapeordinances like Tucson's and Lafayette'scan help reduce water consumptionfor irrigation. Professor Abbey cau-tions, however, that communitiesshould ensure gcxid landscape designwith their ordinances, rather than justrestrict water use. Communities don'tjust want to have a xeriscape ordinancewithout having a full set of landscapeordinances, Abbey says. The bettercommunity ordinances have generallandscape requirements that cover thingslike planning oi buffers, street yards,parking lots, open spaces and vehicularuse areas following construction,

Because xeriscaping may be an unfa-miliar concept ro property owners anddevelopers, communities that enact theordinances should provide plenty ofeducation and training. Landscapers,designers and homeowners all need thetools and knowledge to implement theordinance. A big part of this is justgetting people to begin to change theirconcept of what a landscape should looklike,"Molina says. It's a whole differentway of think ing about it. MX

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Antecedentes. Tucson

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