West Basin pairs $5/sq ft turf rebate with design push
West Basin Municipal Water District, California · Meeting date: October 15, 2026 · Published: October 16, 2026
West Basin Municipal Water District reported that its grass-replacement rebate rose to $5 per square foot on 1 September, while a new landscape-design contractor begins working through a backlog of more than 400 interested residents. The programme is intended to support turf removal as cities prepare for a non-functional turf irrigation ban.
Key points
- The rebate for residents, businesses and cities increased from about $2-$3/sq ft to a uniform $5/sq ft on 1 September.
- New landscape-design contractor RHA Community Works has been given more than 200 applicants to vet from an interest list exceeding 400 residents.
- West Basin has about $50,000 for design assistance, estimated to support 20-30 residential designs and 10 larger commercial or public-site designs over the next two to three months.
- The district aims to use its remaining $40,000 in US Bureau of Reclamation grant funding for turf conversion before the grant ends next June.
Full report
West Basin Municipal Water District is intensifying its push to remove non-functional turf, combining a higher $5/sq ft grass-replacement rebate with a restarted design-assistance programme intended to turn a large customer interest list into completed projects.
At the Public Information & Education Committee meeting on 15 October, staff said the increased rebate took effect on 1 September for residential, commercial and public-agency customers. The previous incentive was about $2-$3/sq ft. Staff have updated web, social-media and direct outreach materials for the new offer, including an email campaign to contacts in all 17 cities in the district's service area.
That campaign will link the increased incentives and West Basin's free design support to the upcoming non-functional turf irrigation ban, staff said. The district is also seeking opportunities to reach business customers; its team recently presented the rebate programmes to the North Redondo Beach Business Association.
The landscape design programme had been paused during the transition from its previous vendor. West Basin has now engaged RHA Community Works and supplied it with more than 200 applicants to contact and assess for rebate eligibility. Since last year, more than 400 residents have joined the programme's interest list, with four or five additional sign-ups arriving in a typical week. The district previously provided fewer than 100 designs over several years.
RHA has scheduled more than 10 residential site visits since September and meetings with West Hollywood, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Gardena. West Basin has a roughly $50,000 design-assistance budget and estimates it can provide 20-30 residential designs and 10 larger commercial and/or public-site designs over the next two to three months. Staff said they expect to return to the committee to discuss additional funding if the budgetary limit is approached.
Staff characterised designs as a required component for applicants to the grass-removal rebate programme. The district is tracking applications received by the Metropolitan Water District after the new incentive and marketing push began. It said activity had been recorded across residential, commercial and public-agency customer segments.
West Basin's immediate objective is to fully use the remaining $40,000 from a US Bureau of Reclamation grant, which runs through June. Staff said that conversion of the commercial, industrial and institutional applications already identified—representing about 42,000 sq ft—would nearly exhaust that funding.
The committee received the update without taking action. Staff will continue to report on applications, marketing and the availability of rebate funds.
This summary was generated by AI based on the source document and may contain errors.
Source: Public Information & Education Committee, West Basin Municipal Water District