The turf rebate, and the easement you sign for it

The money

The base rate is $2 per square foot, and the District publishes no end date for it. Projects completed between June 9, 2026 and June 1, 2027 also receive a supplemental $1 per square foot on the first 1,000 square feet. June 1, 2027 is the end of that supplement, not the end of the program. Projects in Santa Clara receive a further $1 per square foot on the first 500 square feet, on top of the county-wide supplement. Work a 1,400 square foot conversion finished inside the supplement window: 1,000 square feet at $3 is $3,000, the remaining 400 at $2 is $800, so $3,800. That figure comes off the District's own published terms. The District says a contractor will cost "between $4 to $6 per square foot," that rebates "commonly cover 30 to 50 percent of the cost," and that a typical conversion can save up to $300 a year in water. The agreement adds one line worth carrying: "A reduced water bill is not guaranteed."

There is also a treebate. The District adds $100 for each qualifying shade tree, at one tree per 700 square feet of conversion area. The tree has to come from the District's published species list, measure at least 1 inch caliper or arrive in a 15 gallon container, sit at least 5 feet from any hard surface, and go in on drip with a filter and pressure reducer, mulched, inside or next to the conversion area.

The program agreement says checks are issued to the property owner within 30 days of the District receiving all required documents, and that checks become void after 90 days. The FAQ still says rebates come "in less than 60 days." The two District documents disagree; the agreement is the binding one. The 90 day void is the trap for a second-home owner who is away when the check arrives. There is no five-year limit on how often a property may claim. The state's Utah Water Savers FAQ carries one, but Washington County applicants are routed away from the state program, and the District's own agreement has no such rule. What it has is a cap: "The maximum payment is $100,000 per property, per calendar year." The reason to convert everything you intend to convert in one pass is not frequency. It is that one pass means one application, one site visit, one inspection and one recorded easement.

Tax: the FAQ says the District does not require a W-9 from owner-occupied primary residences and will not issue them a Form 1099. Owners of second homes, rentals and commercial property are asked for a W-9 and will get a 1099. The FAQ points to IRS Publication 523 and says this is not tax advice. Neither is this.

Who and what qualifies

The property has to be in St. George, Washington, Hurricane, Santa Clara, Ivins, La Verkin, Toquerville, Virgin, or in unincorporated Washington County, and it has to irrigate from a public water system account in good standing. That list is the District's own, and it covers every town we work in.

What you convert has to be "living, maintained grass and/or a body of water (such as a pond, fountain or pool)." Removing a pond, a fountain or a swimming pool is a qualifying conversion in its own right, not only removing lawn. Most write-ups of this program, ours included until now, treat it as lawn only.

One eligibility rule catches people out. The agreement says "Projects required to comply with a regulation, code or policy are not eligible," and adds that "Areas previously deemed ineligible will not be reconsidered." If lawn is coming out because a city ordinance obliges you to remove it, the District's stated position is that the work is not rebatable. Ask before you assume, and ask in writing.

The order of operations, which is not optional

The District's words: "Never demolish your lawn until you get an email stating you've been approved for the program. Doing so will void your eligibility." And: "Starting your project prior to application approval and a pre-conversion site visit will make your conversion ineligible." The sequence is apply, site visit, approval email, then demolition.

The lawn has to be alive at inspection. You may turn off the irrigation for up to a month before the scheduled inspection "so long as there are visible grass blades," but "do not remove the grass. Clearing the area will make you ineligible." Sheet mulching, solarizing or spraying ahead of time all disqualify you. Sod cutting after the approval email lets the work start the same week. The cost of that rule is that you keep watering a lawn you have decided to remove, through the application and inspection period; applying in spring is the cheapest way through it.

What the finished yard has to be

Exhibit B to the easement is the completion spec, and it is short enough to quote in full. Plant coverage: "The Conversion has fifty percent (50%) living plant and tree cover at maturity, using water-efficient vegetation. The Conversion is free of grass." Irrigation: "either no irrigation system or a low-volume drip irrigation system. If a drip irrigation system is used, it includes a filter, pressure regulator, and emitters rated at twenty (20) gallons per hour or less. The system is free of malfunctions and leaks. No spray irrigation is applied to the Conversion." Surface: "covered by a layer of mulch permeable to air and water, such as rock, bark, ungrouted steppingstones, permeable artificial turf, and/or living groundcovers," and "free of bare soil and impermeable barriers."

The District's Water Efficiency Standards add a fourth drip component at §5.A: a flush-end assembly, alongside the filter, the pressure regulator and emitters at 20 gallons per hour or less. The FAQ explains the regulator: "Drip components are held together with friction. Too much water pressure will damage the system." Drip and spray may not share a valve (§5.B).

Two dimensions the agreement puts in writing. Ground "must be covered by at least 2 inches of mulch, such as rock, bark, ungrouted steppingstones or pavers, permeable artificial turf, and/or living plant material." And "any grass remaining adjacent to the converted area must be a minimum of 8 feet wide and sprinklers may not spray or flow into the converted area." That second rule decides where the boundary of a partial conversion can be drawn, and it is far cheaper to design around before the site visit than after it.

There is no approved plant list for the rebate. The FAQ: "The program doesn't dictate plant selections. We only require that when fully mature, the plants cover at least 50 percent of the converted area." Read that as a statement about the rebate, not about your obligations generally. Toquerville City Code carries a city plant list at § 10-21A-6, and § 10-21A-5 says plant species identified in that section "shall be used considering the Toquerville desert environment." The treebate has a species list of its own. The District points to its Washington County Plant Guide, Most Wanted Trees, Reliable Perennials and the Red Hills Desert Garden plant finder as recommendations, not requirements.

The 50 percent is measured at mature size, and the District publishes the arithmetic: a tree is assigned 350 square feet of cover, a shrub or perennial 35 square feet, so one tree equals ten plants. A 1,000 square foot conversion needs 500 square feet of mature cover, which two trees supply on their own. Existing trees inside the conversion count; the District lists "you must remove your trees" among the myths it debunks. And Exhibit B carries an exception: existing plants and trees outside the conversion "can be used to meet the 50% living plant cover requirement if installing a permeable, synthetic turf or an acceptable permanent hardscape." That is how a dry-laid paver patio becomes part of a rebated conversion.

Can I stack it with the state rebate?

No, because they are the same program. The Utah Water Savers eligibility page routes every Washington County jurisdiction to wcwcd.gov: "If you are a Washington County resident, apply for the Landscape Incentive here." The state site advertises "up to $3 per square foot," a figure that exists only in Washington County; elsewhere the state pays $2. One application, one inspection, one easement, one payment. No document says "these cannot be combined" in those words, so we have asked the District to confirm it in writing.

The fixture rebates do stack, as separate applications: up to $100 for a WaterSense-labeled smart controller, and up to $150 for a WaterSense toilet replacing one made before 1994, up to two per property.

One difference between the District and the state program matters for design: the state excludes trees from the 50 percent entirely. The District counts them at 350 square feet each. Under the District's rules, trees are the cheapest coverage there is.

The easement, read from the sample instrument

The District's sample Conservation Easement (June 2023) is six pages. These are the terms that matter.

Section 1 of the instrument describes itself: "The Grantor executes this Easement to be recorded and which shall be an encumbrance upon the Property." District staff have said publicly that it is not a lien, and that is true. The word in the signed document is encumbrance. It is recorded with the Washington County Recorder and "will be identified during a title search and disclosed to a buyer." A second District instrument, a 2019 easement that waives part of the water impact fee on new construction in exchange for capping irrigated landscape at 5,000 square feet, is a different document for a different purpose, and so are the District's "Water Conservation Easement (Common Areas)" forms, which belong to the impact fee program rather than the rebate.

• Duration: "This Easement shall continue in perpetuity." It runs with the land and binds heirs, successors and assigns.
• Scope: only the converted area described in Exhibit B. The FAQ: "This Conservation Easement restricts only those portions of your property where you received an incentive."
• Prohibited forever in that area (§4): "irrigated grass, spray irrigation systems, swimming pools, ponds, or other bodies of water, or water features."
• Still allowed: "You may replace or move plants, change mulch materials or even undertake a complete redesign" so long as none of the prohibited items appear.
• City ordinances (§3): "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." Signing binds you to future city irrigation restrictions and conservation rate structures, retroactively. Read that clause before you sign.
• Enforcement: "We use aerial imagery to periodically conduct non-intrusive inspections." The District requests voluntary compliance before legal action. The instrument goes further than the FAQ does. Section 2(a) grants the District the right "to enter upon the Property at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner in order to ensure Grantor's compliance with and otherwise enforce the terms of this Easement." Enforcement is not aerial only.
• Cure and penalty (§7a): written notice, 45 days to resolve, then repayment of "the full rebate amount" plus "reasonable administrative costs" plus "interest at the rate of five percent (5%) per annum." Venue is the Fifth District Court; each side bears its own attorney fees.
• Release (§7d): you may ask the District to consider a waiver. It "shall be in writing, signed by Grantee, and recorded," and the District "may require" repayment of the full rebate plus administrative costs plus 5 percent per year. Release is discretionary and the price is the clawback.
• Signing: every titleholder signs before a notary, and the easement must be granted before the incentive is issued. "If you transfer the property to a new owner before the easement is granted, you become ineligible."

Living with it

Two design decisions have to be made before the site visit, because after the easement records they cannot be undone. First, any ground you might ever want as irrigated lawn again, including a green buffer in a wildfire zone, should be left outside the conversion boundary. Second, no pond, fountain or pool inside it, ever. The District's Standards already cap ornamental water features at 25 square feet per parcel; inside a rebated area the number is zero.

Then there is maintenance. Exhibit B requires the area to stay "free of bare soil," and the District checks by air and may also enter under §2(a). The District's own documents differ here. The program agreement says "Bare soil is allowed where native plants are used to restore an area to native desert," and the Standards say the same at §5.D, while Exhibit B of the easement carries no such exception. Outside a native desert restoration, plan on covering the ground: rock settles and thins, bark decomposes, and a bed gone to bare dirt, or a corner someone quietly re-sodded, is a 45-day notice and a potential repayment of the whole rebate with interest. Impermeable weed barriers are prohibited outright. Keeping mulch thick and even is compliance with a recorded obligation, not a cosmetic choice.

More under water-wise landscape

• Artificial turf, measured: 200 degrees on a 98 degree day
• Defensible space, water savings and your wildfire fee
• Getting a Level 2 charger installed here