Covenants require fescue lawns

George,

Just a little bit off of the subject but my new Tennessee Developer has it written into the Covs that all lawns must be tall Fescue. It stays green all year long and is really drought tollerant so thus he requires it.

Now 2 things with the O.P. Numer 1, he did not get approval to install the artificial grass which is what his real problem is. Number 2, the covenants require Fescue and he did not follow that requirement. Do I agree with any of this? Probably not. As a Master Gardner for my new County, we are seeing all kinds of creative skirting of landscape requirements for HOAs. The T.V.A. here is begging people to find ways to conserve water and I recently completed a study on Xeriscaping (for my certification). There will have to be changes made in how we use water. Over 51% of water usage in America goes to landscape and lawn watering.

N. Carolina, Georgia and some parts of Tn are in their 2nd year of drought with Atlantas main water provider, drying up.

We will have to seek alternative ways to landscape and sooner than we think. We need to change our mindsets and look at Egypt, Dubai and all of the Middle East That used to be lush and green.

George,

I looked up the municipal code for Surprise, AZ and have posted it below. Note that it says: "provided such landscaping receives appropriate architectural review approval." Note that is does not specify artificial grass and the design may not be prohibited SOLELY on the basis that the design makes use of water-efficient landscaping." The read this to mean the h/o must have another reason for wanting the artificial turf.

Sec. 58-595. Prohibition on certain covenants, conditions and restrictions.
Any person(s) or association(s) are prohibited from imposing private covenants, conditions, restrictions, deed clauses or other agreements between the parties, which prevents person(s) from utilizing water-efficient landscaping provided such landscaping receives appropriate architectural-review approval. Landscaping designs may not be prohibited solely on the basis that such design makes use of water-efficient landscaping.

I was Cleopatra in another life and I vividly remember romping with my pet asp in those lush green meadows down by the Nile. LOL

Donna isn't that why Georgia is trying to move their border north a mile into Tennessee so they can have access to the Tennessee River?

Oh Brian, Don't even mention that subject. Georgia wants to move the border north by 1 mile which would give them the rights to that part of the water. I live about 4 miles north of the river as it goes thru Chattanooga. They don't call this the "Scenic City" for nothing. This border dispute has been going on for 50 years when someone noticed that half of the States had borders that were changed. Probably easier to define a State if they followed natural borders like rivers, Mt ranges, etc. Atlanta needs water so bad and we have a river. But the TVA owns the rights to control it and they are trying to stay neutral, leaving Tn to fight this alone.

I musta meant Glen. Sorry Glen

I was thinking (dangerous) about when we bought our Florida home. The covenants required "Flortam" grass which is a hybred crabgrass that the U. of Fla. developed to save water and to deal with drought without turning brown. I thought that it was odd that someone told us what kind of grass that we had to have. So this Fescue thing isn't something new but just that we really don't think much of it until the artificial turf showed up.

But as we said earlier, this is an issue of the owner not getting approval

Kirk, wouldn't that automatically fall into the "Duty to Maintain" covenant, anyway?

If one's shed (if they're allowed)falls into disrepair, it must be corrected.

If one's fence falls into disrepair, it must be repaired.

So I would imagine that if one's artificial turf falls into disrepair (fades, becomes torn, has holes in it, gets spotty, whatever it is that happens to old or damaged artificial turf), that it would also fall into this category.

One would think . . .

I know, I know!

One man's "disrepair" is another man's "patina"!

Consider in Dallas where there was no more then a voluntary call for reduction after 3 years of drought (And that was because other cities were running completely out.), there were still wars over how much was enough or how green was green enough. Heck we even had one HOA hitting both sides of the same issue. One owner was the highest water consumer in the city. (The city finally stepped in after a news story showing the water going into the storm system.) The other side they were fighting people letting their grass get yellow green.

It is rough out there.