California’s water crisis led Gov. Jerry Brown to mandate a 25 percent water consumption cut for non-agricultural uses. Most of this will affect residential users.
When it comes to the residential market, the state is faced with an even bigger dilemma: not only is water scarce, so is housing in boom places such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The verdant, water-guzzling front lawns and backyards of California’s many sprawling housing developments, long held as a standard for beauty, are getting scrutinized by the state’s more austere populace. The New York Times reports that utility companies are paying developers and homeowners to swap their turf lawns for desert-friendly landscapes that contain water-sipping native plants.
