Couple Fined for Letting Lawn Die During a Drought
July 24, 2008 · Print This Article
On June 4th, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought, so Anne Hartridge and Matt George, a Sacramento couple who already lived a pretty green lifestyle, decided it was as good a time as any to let their lawn die in preparation for doing something more productive with it. Not long after the grass turned brown, a neighbor complained to the city and the Code Enforcement Department gave the family a citation.
From redOrbit:
Their small brick home was declared a “public nuisance” in violation of city code section 17.68.010, which states that front yards “shall be irrigated, landscaped and maintained.”
A $746 fine will be next unless they correct the violation.
“In order to make the lawn go, I would have had to keep watering it intensely, and since the drought was declared, I decided that wasn’t a good idea,” said Hartridge. “Honestly, I think there’s a disconnect within the city about priorities.”
Two weeks ago, The Bee reported that Sacramento’s per capita water use is among the greatest in the world. Later that week, the same day Hartridge got the citation, an audit revealed that the city has lost or misplaced nearly 5,000 water meters, out of more than 100,000 it must install citywide to comply with state law.
“On one hand they’re mislaying their water meters, and on the other hand they going out and putting enforcement on people who don’t have green lawns,” Hartridge said. “And there’s water running down the gutters of my neighborhood every day.”
Food, not lawns! Seriously, this is absurd. Messed up priorities, indeed – and most of it comes from the fact that the city Code Enforcement Department doesn’t communicate with the Utilities department about water usage. Well, that and douchebag neighbors. There’s a drought, and this person goes and complains about a lawn that’s less than perfect? Unbelievable. Our freshwater resources aren’t bottomless, and someday everybody’s going to look back on all of this lawn watering with disgust and disbelief.
Furthermore, $746?!?! Sacramento needs to get their shit together. I wonder how many more cities around the nation have the same stupid, backwards laws.
Link [redOrbit]
Photo credit: Flickr user james.thompson
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This is a ludicrous implementation of a ludicrous law. The city government shouldn’t have regulation on you personal lawn taste. Further, doesn’t someone in that city have a heart to consider the cost and difficulty of nurturing a lawn in a drought?
Gustavion,
We live in a world permeated with the stupidity of government intervention. Government regulation and water quotas have replaced the market and price mechanism for the distribution of scarce supplies. It is madness, and I lay the blame squarely at the public education system for churning out ignorance, which of course is another function of government.
Furthermore, the idea that the government can steal from you (fine) because your private property does not meet certain aesthetic conditions is repugnant to any rational definition of a free society. The Founding Fathers would be disgusted.
This is crazy - I wish everyones lawn would die, so that they could plant native plants and food instead. Native plants are much more drought resistant. Grass takes so many resources to maintain it’s almost a tragedy how uneducated people are about the useless nature of their lawn. These people should not pay the fine, and dispute it’s silliness.
I agree, Leslie. I’m a renter, so I can’t go all out like I’d like to, but luckily my landlord is pretty nice so I’ve been slowly smothering the grass and planting drought-hardy native landscaping and edibles. The rest of my grass is brown as all get-out, and luckily my neighbors don’t care.