green development-water incentives in Vegas

from today's Las Vegas Review Journal --

Water authority ready to pay for bigger grass conversions
By HENRY BREAN

"After a year of targeting small residential lawns, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is headed out in search of bigger game.

Starting Jan. 1, the authority will experiment with new rates and no restrictions for its popular cash-for-grass program. The goal is to entice golf courses, homeowners associations and other large properties to downsize their grass.

Under the new rebate rules approved by the water authority board on Thursday, the authority will pay a flat $1.50 for every square-foot of turf that is removed and replaced with desert landscaping, regardless of how large the conversion.

The authority used to cap the total rebate amount for a single conversion at $300,000 and pay less for turf removed after the first 1,500 square-feet.

The change could entice some golf courses to tear out some of their turf, said Doug Bennett, conservation manager for the water authority.

A single golf course conversion can total 500,000 square feet or more.

"We have some large golf course (conversion) projects that have been talked about for a number of years," he said.

Area golf courses have already torn out a total 500 acres of grass, most of it during the past three years. That's enough turf to build five new golf courses, Bennett said.

The new rebate rules will replace a special, limited-time offer the authority extended in January 2007: $2 per square-foot for the first 1,500 square-feet removed, and $1 for every square-foot after that." ...

"Since the turf-rebate program's launch in 1999, more than 86 million square feet -- or 3 square miles -- of turf has been replaced with desert landscaping.

Rebates typically cover about half the cost of a landscape conversion, though customers also can expect to save some money on their water bills.

Ripping out even one square foot of grass saves an average of 55 gallons of water a year. To date, the rebate program is credited with saving more than 17.5 billion gallons of water a year, which is enough to supply more than 100,000 homes." ...

for the complete story see:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/12243571.html