Saving water in Chandler, one HOA at a time

The City of Chandler offers a variety of programs to incentivize water conservation. One of these programs offers water conservation rebates for replacing grass with desert-adapted plants, available to both individual residents and large users such as commercial properties, multi-family housing complexes, and neighborhood HOAs.

The Sun Groves community in southeast Chandler recently took advantage of the large user rebate for grass removal.

Cindy Lucas, Community Manager for the Sun Groves HOA, explained their process for converting grass to xeriscape.

Lucas mentioned that their HOA first funded grass removal several years ago. When asked why the specific areas of their community were selected, she said the grass was non-functional. "Kids weren't using it to play, it didn't look good, you could barely see it from the street and the turf and drainage always struggled."

The HOA board of directors and the management company were both supportive of the grass removal project.

The first phase of the grass removal project converted five small grass areas to xeriscape. The project was on hold for several years until the city increased the rebate, offering 25% reimbursement of the project cost, plus an additional $3 per square foot for removing non-functional grass. With the increase in funding, the HOA decided to move forward with phase two, that focused on the largest grass area in their community. This phase took a couple of months to complete.

"We would have never done as much without the funding from the city," Lucas continued. "The first time, the city covered 63% of the cost and this time (phase two), the city covered 75% of the cost."

She said that the communication to their community has been about savings, both money and water. "I focus on the value and benefit of getting all of these plants and they are low water use and drought tolerant which in turn creates the cost savings. The areas weren't aesthetically pleasing or useful and obviously water conservation played a role. In Arizona, that is always in the back of our minds."

The grass removal rebate is available to any HOA community in Chandler. Lucas had some tips for other HOA management companies and boards who want to take advantage of this program. She suggested that the HOA should reach out to Chandler's water conservation team first and get to know the process. She also stressed that the landscaper should be heavily involved from the beginning.

Speaking about the process to apply for the rebate, Lucas said, "It was really easy. Honestly for that amount of funding, how easy the application process and how easy the city made it was wonderful."

When asked if Sun Groves had to make any changes to CC&Rs for individual residents' properties because of this grass conversion, she said that their community doesn't require overseeding and only requires 11 plants in the front yard. As a result, no changes were needed.

Lucas said that Sun Groves also took advantage of another service provided by Chandler's Water Conservation team. The city helped them set up an account with Waterfluence, a large landscape use software that allows customers to see their water usage and compare it to an estimated water budget based on the weather, amount of grass and plants in common areas. Even before they started the grass to xeriscape conversion, Sun Groves HOA was only using 36% of their projected water use budget. Lucas said this was positive news to give to their homeowners. They also use reclaimed water for even more savings.

In 2024, residential and non-residential sites in Chandler removed about 309,000 square feet of grass through the city's grass to xeriscape rebate program.

In order to qualify for a grass removal rebate, grass must be removed and replaced with low water use desert plants to create a permanent reduction in water use. The residential rebate is $2 per square foot up to $3,000.

For commercial water customers, the rebate program reimburses 25% of the total project cost, plus an additional incentive of $3 per square foot to remove nonfunctional grass (for a maximum rebate of 75% of the project cost or $75,000). Non-functional grass refers to areas that are not used for recreational purposes.

For more information about Chandler's rebates for residents and commercial properties, visit Chandler Water Conservation or call 480-782-3580.