OGDEN — Weber County officials are considering new landscaping guidelines for future development, letting homeowners in unincorporated areas take part in programs paying them to remove grass.

The overarching aim of the proposed changes is to curtail water use, and Steven Burton, a planner in the Weber County Planning Division, foresees “pretty significant” savings if the initiatives get the green light. Still, debate continues, with mixed support for the shift so far.

Residents in numerous cities in Weber and Davis counties can already take part in the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District‘s Flip Your Strip and Landscape Lawn Exchange programs. Now plans are in the works that would let residents in western Weber County and the Ogden Valley take part as well.

The Western Weber Planning Commission on Tuesday recommended approval of new, more rigorous landscaping regulations for new developments, a step forward in the process. But members of the Ogden Valley Planning Commission, though they have yet to make a formal recommendation, have expressed reticence.

“Across the board, they were very much opposed to this,” Burton told the Western Weber Planning Commission members at the body’s meeting on Tuesday.

Ogden Valley Planning Commission officials like the Flip Your Strip and Landscape Lawn Exchange programs, explained Charlie Ewert, the principal planner in the planning division. They just don’t like having to change landscaping regulations per Weber Basin Water Conservancy District dictates before property owners can tap into them.

“They like the incentive programs. They don’t like the mandatory requirement,” Ewert said. The Ogden Valley Planning Commission is to formally debate the issue on Tuesday, July 18.

The Western Weber Planning Commission oversees planning issues in unincorporated areas of Weber County along the Wasatch Front and areas further west. The Ogden Valley Planning Commission oversees planning issues in unincorporated areas of Weber County along the Wasatch Front and areas further east. However, Weber County commissioners have final say on planning issues, generally speaking, factoring recommendations from the two bodies.

Burton said county commissioners sought consideration of the change needed to tap into the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District programs owing to clamoring from the public. “We want it to be water-wise landscaping,” Burton said.

As originally set out, the guidelines for the two planning areas, applicable to just new development, would limit the portion of yards that can contain irrigated turf grass to no more than 35% of the total front and side yard. Moreover, no more than 3,000 square feet of a lot, including the backyard area, could contain grass.

In new commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-family residential developments, no more than 15% of the landscaped area could have grass.

On Tuesday, the Western Weber Planning Commission tweaked the guidelines to read that new home development would either have to meet the 35% or 3,000-square-foot requirement, whichever allowed for more grass. The recommendation passed 4-2.

As new development under the proposed guidelines would already be landscaped to conserve water, only owners of older properties would be able to tap into the Flip Your Strip or Landscape Lawn Exchange programs. The Flip Your Strip program provides participants with $1.25 per square foot of park strip areas that are converted from grass to low-water landscaping. The newer Landscape Lawn Exchange program provides participants with $2.50 per square foot of any part of a grass lawn that is converted.

David Rice, conservation division manager with the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, said it requires locales to implement new landscaping guidelines on future developments to tap into its programs, due to Utah Division of Water Resources guidelines. Part of the incentive funding provided under the Flip Your Strip and Landscape Lawn Exchange programs comes from the state.

“The state said we need these standards,” Rice said. What’s more, he said it wouldn’t make sense to allow new development with no restrictions on turf areas only to provide funding under the entity’s programs for the grass to later be removed.

In pushing to reduce grassy areas, Rice noted the quantity of water that typically goes to landscaping, typically 65% of a home’s overall water use, most of that for lawns. Only around 35% of water consumption typically goes for indoor uses.

As for water savings, Rice estimates that converting a park strip from grass to rocks or landscaping that requires less water could cut water use by 5% to 10%. Reducing larger lawn areas could cut water use by, perhaps, 30%. Still, it’s hard to make precise estimates because of the many variables that figure in water use.

Interest in the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District turf removal programs is holding steady this year compared to last year, Rice said.

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