A board's guide to converting common-area lawn

The calendar decides more than the design does

Under § 57-8a-215 a planned community's board prepares and adopts a budget and presents it to the members, and the budget is disapproved only if, within 45 days, owners holding at least 51 percent of all allocated voting interests vote to disapprove it at a special meeting called by the owners. If the budget is disapproved or never adopted, the last adopted budget continues.

Condominium associations had no statutory budget requirement at all until 2026. Section 57-8-7.6, enacted by Laws of Utah 2026, Chapter 62, now requires the management committee to prepare and adopt a budget at least annually and present it to the members, with the same 45-day, 51-percent disapproval mechanism.

Read the threshold honestly. Fifty-one percent of all allocated voting interests, not 51 percent of those who show up, at a special meeting the owners themselves have to call. In practice that almost never happens. A board that puts a conversion line in the annual budget has effectively made the decision, and the window to make it is before the budget is drafted. In this county that is the autumn.

Operating money or reserve money

Recurring service comes out of operating. Replacing a component comes out of reserves, and reserve money can only go to a component that is in the reserve study. That one sentence explains most of the delay boards experience. If common-area turf and its irrigation are not identified components in the study, the reserve account is not the funding source.

For condominiums, § 57-8-7.5 requires a reserve analysis at least every six years and a review and update at least every three, and requires a reserve line item in the budget at a prudent amount. Owners have a veto there too: within 45 days of budget adoption, 51 percent of allocated voting interests at a special meeting may veto the reserve line item, and the last non-vetoed line item then governs. Reserve funds must be held separately and may not be spent on daily maintenance absent a majority vote. The planned community reserve provision is § 57-8a-211, with the parallel owner veto at subsection (7).

There is no Utah statute defining or governing HOA special assessments, and no statutory approval threshold for one. The mechanism is whatever the declaration and bylaws say.

Bids, the contract, and the meeting

No Utah statute requires a board to collect multiple bids. Bid requirements, where they exist, come from the association's own CC&Rs and board policy, so the first question is whether your documents impose one and how many. Read that section before you solicit anything. A policy discovered after the fact is how a good contract gets rescinded.

The contract itself gets approved at a board meeting that owners may attend. For a board, it is the record that protects the decision: scope, price, schedule and the funding source, stated in the minutes.

Ask every bidder for the same things and compare them on paper: a certificate of insurance with the association named as an additional insured, license verification, a written scope keyed to the water district's completion specification, and a schedule. Whatever insurance limits your documents set, apply them to everyone bidding.

What the water district requires of anyone who applies

Common areas are eligible, and the District publishes the rule on its rebate application rather than in the FAQ, which is why it is easy to miss. The application says: "Application must be submitted by the legal property owner or a legally appointed representative. The homeowner's association (HOA) must be the applicant for projects located in common or limited common areas." The form's property type list includes "HOA Common Area" and its project area list includes "Common Area." A board can budget around this rebate, and the association itself has to be the applicant. One document not to confuse with it: the District also publishes a "Water Conservation Easement (Common Areas)" form, and that one belongs to the water impact fee program, not to the rebate.

One eligibility rule belongs in the board packet. The agreement says "Projects required to comply with a regulation, code or policy are not eligible," and that "Areas previously deemed ineligible will not be reconsidered." If the association is taking turf out to come into compliance with a municipal lawn cap, the District's stated position is that the work is not rebatable. In Washington City that is a live question, because the city ordinance defines any WCWCD-funded conversion as rehabilitated landscaping subject to the city standards. Put it to the District before the budget assumes the money.

The rules that apply to every applicant are published and strict about sequence. Do not demolish anything before the approval email arrives. The District's FAQ says starting a project before application approval and a pre-conversion site visit makes the conversion ineligible, and that clearing the area makes you ineligible. The grass has to be alive at the inspection. Irrigation may be turned off for up to a month beforehand so long as visible grass blades remain, but the lawn cannot be removed or killed in advance. A landscape crew that tidies up early can destroy the rebate on a six-figure project.

The completion standard is the same for a board as for a homeowner. Fifty percent living plant and tree cover at maturity, with the area free of grass. Either no irrigation or a low-volume drip system with a filter, a pressure regulator and emitters rated at 20 gallons per hour or less, with no spray irrigation applied to the converted area. A mulch layer permeable to air and water, at least 2 inches deep, and no impermeable barriers. On bare soil the District's documents differ: the program agreement and the October 2023 Standards at §5.D allow bare soil where native plants restore an area to native desert, while Exhibit B of the easement says the conversion must be free of it. Design to the mulch requirement unless the plan is a native desert restoration, and raise it at the site visit. Any grass left next to the converted area must be at least 8 feet wide, and its sprinklers may not spray or flow into the conversion.

The coverage arithmetic is friendlier than boards expect. The District assigns trees 350 square feet of mature cover each and shrubs, groundcovers and other perennials 35 square feet each, so one tree counts as ten plants, and existing plants that survive the conversion count. There is no approved plant list under the rebate; the program does not dictate species, only mature coverage. Your city may be stricter: Toquerville publishes a city plant list at § 10-21A-6. Poured concrete and grouted pavers are subtracted from the rebated area, while ungrouted pavers and dry-set flagstone are treated as mulch. The incentive is $2 per square foot with no published end date, plus a supplemental $1 per square foot on the first 1,000 square feet for projects completed between June 9, 2026 and June 1, 2027, and a further $1 per square foot on the first 500 square feet at a Santa Clara address. A treebate adds $100 for each qualifying shade tree, at one tree per 700 square feet of conversion area. The maximum payment is $100,000 per property, per calendar year, which is the figure that decides a large common-area project. Checks are issued within 30 days of the District receiving all required documents and become void after 90 days. The FAQ separately still says less than 60 days; the two District documents disagree and the agreement is the binding one.

The easement the association signs

This is the part boards find out about late, and it belongs on the agenda the first night. Taking the incentive means granting a conservation easement to the District. Section 1 of the instrument says the grantor "executes this Easement to be recorded and which shall be an encumbrance upon the Property." It continues in perpetuity. It runs with the land, binds successors and assigns, is recorded with the Washington County Recorder, and shows up in a title search. Encumbrance is the document's own word for itself, and it is the word to use in the minutes.

It restricts only the converted area, not the whole property. Inside that area it permanently prohibits irrigated grass, spray irrigation systems, swimming pools, ponds or other bodies of water, and water features. What remains permitted is generous: replacing or moving plants, changing mulch, even a complete redesign, as long as none of the prohibited items appear.

Enforcement is by periodic non-intrusive inspection using aerial imagery, and section 2(a) of the instrument separately grants the District the right "to enter upon the Property at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner" to check compliance. It is not aerial only. On a violation the District gives written notice and 45 days to resolve it, after which the grantor repays the full rebate amount received, plus reasonable administrative costs, plus interest at 5 percent per annum. A release is discretionary with the District, must be written, signed and recorded, and the price is that same repayment.

Section 3 is the clause to read twice before a board signs. "The Grantor agrees to comply with any ordinance passed by the City which apply to the Property restricting outside irrigation or imposing water conservation rates, even if subsequently passed and retroactively effective." The association is agreeing to future city irrigation restrictions and conservation rate structures it has not seen, with retroactive effect.

Two mechanics matter for an entity rather than an individual. The easement must be granted before the incentive is issued. And an entity signs through an authorized officer, trustee or member, so your board needs to know who is authorized to bind the association before the signature page arrives. Put the easement in front of counsel at the same meeting where you approve the contract.

Do the whole neighborhood at once

Converting the whole neighbourhood at once is what makes the arithmetic work. One mobilization, one design language, one round of member communication, instead of forty separate arguments spread over five years. It is also the only version a landscape contractor can price properly, because the crew sets up once.

Bring numbers your members can check. Pull twelve months of the association's own water bills and put the actual dollars on a slide. Tiered rates in this county climb steeply, and a district surcharge applies to use above monthly thresholds, so savings on a large irrigated area are not linear with square footage removed. Your own bills beat anyone's brochure.

What the board controls, and what it does not

On owners' own lots it is narrower. Under § 57-8a-231(3)(b), except where reasonably necessary for erosion control, an association may not require a lot owner to install or keep in place lawn or turf in an area less than eight feet wide. Under § 57-8a-218(15)(a), where owners rather than the association maintain the landscaping, the association shall adopt rules supporting water-wise landscaping, and under (15)(b) a rule may not prohibit or restrict conversion of a grass park strip or prohibit low water use on lawns during drought. Condominium associations have parallel obligations at § 57-8-8.1(8).

Two cities go further than the statute does. Washington City Code § 8-9-3(iii), from Ordinance 2023-29 adopted 25 October 2023, preempts association governing documents recorded after the ordinance passed where they conflict with the city's landscape standards or have the effect of prohibiting or restricting compliance with them. Santa Clara City Code § 17.92.060 does the same, voiding conflicting association documents recorded after that chapter passed. Both reach only documents recorded after those dates, so the recording date of an amendment decides whether it survives.

If the program changes design criteria that apply to owners, § 57-8a-217 governs the adoption: at least 15 days' notice before the meeting, an open forum before the board acts, a copy of the approved change within 15 days after, and owner disapproval available for 60 days at 51 percent of allocated voting interests. A procedural failure can be challenged for 18 months. Doing the notice properly costs two weeks. Skipping it costs eighteen months of exposure.

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