Third local government restricts amount of new grass

NORTH LAS VEGAS - City officials are limiting how much grass can be planted in front yards, golf courses and apartment complexes in an effort to save water.

The City Council Wednesday unanimously mandated that grass can make up no more than half of a new single-family home's front yard.

Las Vegas and Clark County already limit the amount of grass that can be used in new landscaping. Henderson is considering grass restrictions as well.

New North Las Vegas apartment complexes must limit turf to 40 percent of their landscaping. Strip malls and other commercial developments are restricted to 25 percent lawn. And golf courses can have no more than an average of five acres of grass per hole.

The limitations come at the Southern Nevada Water Authority's request. Water authority officials hope by 2010 Las Vegas Valley residents will be consuming 25 percent less water thanks to the conservation measures.

The 25 percent conservation rate would extend Las Vegas' long-term water resources by saving about 35,000 gallons a year on a 6,000 square-foot lot, the average size of a single-family home in Clark County.

Local consumers have achieved an 18 percent conservation rate for the first seven months of 2000, in line with expectations, authority officials said.

The limits in Las Vegas are less stringent than in cities such as Albuquerque, N.M., which limits grass to 20 percent of a lot's total area.