Native, not lush lawns

Cheney’s Planning Commission got an overview of proposed landscaping regulations officials would like to implement in order to encourage water conservation in the city. The regulations would apply to all residential developments as well as commercial, industrial and public institutions.

The regulations would govern traditional landscaping techniques, but would also encourage residents to look at alternatives such as xeriscape practices. Xeriscapes is a style of landscape design used in arid regions that requires little or no irrigation or other maintenance.

Some of the methods listed in the proposed regulations for xeriscapes is using plants with low moisture requirements, using native, noninvasive, adapted plant species, minimizing the amount of irrigated turf and using separate irrigations zones and drip or trickle irrigation systems.

Senior planner Brett Lucas said the crux of the proposed regulations lies in getting people to voluntarily implement these practices, rather than creating compliance through more robust means.

“That’s the way we’re going, more of an encouragement approached than a heavy-handed, code enforcement approach,” Lucas added.

The proposed additions to Cheney’s municipal code chapter on landscaping and buffering also include standards for turf and high water use plantings, such as annuals, in new developments. These uses should be limited to no more than 50 percent of a project’s landscaped area if non-drought-resistant grass is used, and no more than 75 percent of the area if drought-resistant types are planted.

Current standards in the chapter were also adjusted to allow swale percolation areas, rather than grass swales, required for handling stormwater to “be incorporated into required landscape plantings so long as neither the drainage requirements nor the landscape requirements are compromised.”

The new and revised standards reaffirm opportunities for all development types in the city to utilize landscaping other than grass, something Public Works Director Todd Ableman said has always been the case.

“We don’t really require lawns, that’s been a misconception,” he added.

The proposed standards were submitted to the commission for its review and input, the latter being somewhat lukewarm to the possibilities of effectiveness of the new regulations. Commissioner Rick Mount said if the city intends to implement these standards, there should be a stronger incentive for their utilization.

“My concern would be how do we make this really effective,” Mount said.

Ableman said the standards are really geared toward commercial uses such as stormwater swales, but they also hope residential developers and homeowners will take a look at them and consider them as a different approach to landscaping.

Lucas added that people with existing yards weren’t going to be asked to go back and redo their lawns. Those uses are grandfathered into the system, something Commissioner Daniel Hillman said would be appreciated by Cheney homeowners.

“I know I wouldn’t be happy with somebody telling me what I can and can’t have in my yard,” he added.

Lucas said the standards and comments would be eventually be combined into an ordinance that will be sent to City Council for its consideration at some later date.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].