Conservation via Persuasion
Southern California water districts, homebuilders unite to launch unique pilot program that helps ensure adequate residential water supplies.
In southern California, the most populous and fastest-growing part of the most populous state, several production homebuilders have found that familiarizing homebuyers with surroundings that suit the local environment beats prescriptive water-conservation legislation that many claim is inevitable. As it is, state legislation passed earlier this decade mandates that developers document the long-term adequacy of a development’s local water supply prior to construction. Using financial incentives, “California Friendly” water-conservation programs launched by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) are persuading homebuilders to incorporate water conservation into the homes they build before the programs’ standards likely become law.
Such legislation is part of an overall trend in western states. According to a 2006 article in the Journal of the American Planning Association, many western states are requiring that the long-term adequacy of water supplies be ensured prior to granting approval for construction of new developments.
Lynn Lipinski, who manages California Friendly program marketing and outreach efforts for the MWD—a consortium of 26 cities and water districts serving about 18 million people in parts of six counties—notes that state legislation passed in 2001 motivated the MWD and homebuilders to begin making programs like California Friendly Homes and California Friendly Landscapes integral parts of their operations.
In effect in January 2002, the law prohibits cities and counties from issuing permits for construction of projects of 500 homes or more unless the local water agency verifies that it has enough water to serve the new growth over at least the next 20 years. Opponents called the legislation anti-growth, while the sponsor noted that it was the first in the state—whose population is increasing by nearly half a million annually—to integrate water-use planning with land-use planning. A companion bill mandates water supply assessments for all commercial or residential projects and expands consequences for urban water suppliers that do not submit and update their urban water management plans. It also requires a detailed analysis of groundwater supplies.
 |
Photo: Bewaterwise.com |
| Bewaterwise.com is designed to increase awareness of water-conservation programs. |
Lipinski says, “That caused homebuilders to sit up and say, ‘Tell us more about this. What’s it going to take for us to save it so that new homes can be served?’ They have to get a letter from the local water agency that shows that they have the water to serve the new development. So it would help a builder to say that they’re using the most water-efficient landscape, which would reduce the amount of water needed per home.”
In response to these laws taking effect, the Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIA) developed the California Friendly pilot programs in conjunction with the MWD, the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in Riverside County, and the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). The programs, using a total of $269,505 contributed by the MWD, the EMWD, and the USBR, provide homebuilder members of the BIA with rebates for constructing homes with water-conserving landscaping, plumbing fixtures, appliances, and technologies.
Perhaps most importantly, these organizations are educating the public about the water-conservation potential that is achievable in construction. The MWD has invested significant resources in marketing materials designed to increase awareness of the programs among builders and homeowners, including a Web site, bewaterwise.com.
Outdoor Water Use Targeted
The California Friendly Landscape program used an $182,000 grant from the USBR to provide BIA homebuilder members with an incentive of 80 cents per square foot of California Friendly landscaping. The MWD contributed $45,500 for landscape rebates and $16,705 for smart irrigation controller rebates, while the EMWD contributed $25,300 for landscape rebates and labor. Besides the incentives, the program encouraged builders to voluntarily design landscapes that adhere to program standards.
Expected to cut outdoor water use in half and save about 9.7 million gallons or 30 acre-feet of water per year, the program is being used in 257 homes’ landscapes in the EMWD. Lipinski says that the program has two major components.
“We really promote those ET weather-based controllers,” she says of evapotranspiration-activated sprinkler controllers that turn on outdoor sprinkler systems when soil moisture and climactic conditions dictate. “We believe that if a homeowner wants to have turf and have it watered automatically, this is the perfect tool, as long as you have an efficient water system. If you have turf, you’re probably overwatering it. Most people who have landscapes of a certain size in California have automatic sprinkler systems, but they’re not changing those on a seasonal basis. Our high bar is that you should change it every week—seasonal would be good, too. We say the first thing is to look at how much you’re watering your turf and we bet you can cut it in half and it’ll still be healthy.”
The other major program component is a reduction of turf on a given property, Lipinski adds. The rebate program offers builders landscaping plans that utilize water-efficient plants as an alternative to thirsty turf, as well as runoff reduction and other environmentally sustainable landscaping.
“I’ve heard experts tell me that 350 square feet is all anyone uses for turf and anything beyond that is not used and you might as well plant something else,” Lipinski says. “Is it there as a default because you don’t know what else to do with it? We require new homebuilders to be within a water budget—we’re not actually dictating the amount of turf they have, but the water budget dictates that it’s not going to be very much. If they’re within a water budget, they’re using native California plants, which are plants that are either native to the area,” such as Bush anemone or California fuchsia that thrive entirely or almost entirely on rainfall, “or low-water-using imports that have not proven to be invasive in the area. Besides designing landscapes with California Friendly plants, the builders are also using a lot of different smart landscaping practices like trapping runoff or using hardscape to help reduce the overall amount that’s covered with landscape.”
Lipinski notes that homebuyers have been receptive to the landscape program. Often, the California Friendly front yard is designed by the developer and maintained by the homeowners’ association (HOA) and the homeowner has some latitude to design and maintain the backyard. “They are so excited by how low-maintenance the yard is and that tends to be the selling point for them—we saw that in our focus groups as well,” she says. “What sells the homebuyer on the home is that it’s beautiful and colorful and then it’s low maintenance—that’s what they come to love most about it. The fact that it’s the right thing to do is important, but low maintenance is the seller.”
David and Shannon Fafard recently purchased a new home in the Watermill at Adeline’s Farm development in French Valley, which received rebates for using California Friendly landscapes. “I really like the way the landscape looks, but the best part is how low maintenance it is,” says David Fafard. “I’ve barely had to touch it since moving in four weeks ago, and it still looks great.”
Standardizing Indoor Water-Use Reduction
The California Friendly Homes program provides rebates to homebuilders that showcase water-efficient plumbing fixtures and appliances, in addition to California Friendly landscaping, in the California Friendly Model Home program. In addition to a contribution of $250,000 and marketing materials for the model home program, the MWD provides financial incentives to builders that incorporate these items into production homes. The USBR also provided support of $80,000. The objective is to help builders promote water conservation and environmental sustainability to homebuyers.
This program gives up to $2,500 for each of 112 model homes that utilize high-efficiency toilets using dual-flush, pressure-assisted, and gravity-fed operating principles that yield 20% lower water use than standard 1.6-gallon-per-flush Ultra Low Flush Toilets required by the plumbing code, and high-efficiency clothes washers that have an Energy Star water factor of 6.0 or lower and are designed to save about 5,000 gallons per year.
Homeowners stand to benefit from the California Friendly programs, too, qualifying for incentives for having high-efficiency toilets, clothes washers, and smart irrigation controllers installed.
 |
Photo: Shea Homes |
| Native California plants allow for beautiful landscaping without excessive water usage in new home developments. |
“Getting It Right the First Time”
A key attribute of California Friendly is that, currently, the programs provide financial assistance for new construction only—a much more cost-effective use of the incentives than retrofitting. The emphasis is on “getting it right the first time” on a production scale.
A longer-term, albeit less tangible, benefit of the programs is raising awareness of water-efficient technologies and landscaping among builders and homeowners. Two builders report that the transition to meeting California Friendly standards in constructing new developments has been a smooth one.
Bob Yoder, president of Shea Homes’ Inland Empire division, focuses on the level of water conservation that is possible by adherence to California Friendly Landscape program standards.
“We saw this coming,” he says. “We prefer to be on the edge of it instead of trying to play catch-up later; I think that within a few years, California Friendly landscapes will be mandated. We’ve made a commitment company-wide that even when we’re not doing California Friendly to use an ET transmitter, a satellite weather transmitter, and irrigation control on all of our homes in California—that in itself, assuming it’s monitored and managed correctly, is a significant chunk of water savings.”
Shea Homes opened to the public four model homes at the Watermill at Adeline’s Farm development in French Valley in summer 2006. By the end of 2007, Shea is expected to complete the 113-home, non-age-restricted development, which makes extensive use of California Friendly technologies and practices. Using incentives available in the pilot programs, Shea has gone a long way toward increasing homebuyers’ awareness of water-conservation potential, Yoder says. “Essentially, the program enabled us to do this at break-even and not a substantial additional cost. It allowed us to get our feet wet with the program a little bit and test the receptiveness of our consumers.”
Yoder adds that, while homebuyers are receptive to facilitating water conservation, they hardly notice the difference in the appearance of California Friendly landscapes. “My personal belief is that the whole paradigm of what a good landscape is in southern California—that is, the big front lawn—has to change to a different look,” he says. “We are essentially in a desert, but you go out to our models and it doesn’t look like a desert landscape. I think that if we didn’t advertise it and notify people, they wouldn’t notice it that much; at the same time, it’s achieving the water savings, so we definitely want to set an example in that area, and over the longer term, hopefully everybody will get on board.”
John Laing Homes designed the Sun City Holiday development with various landscapes that adhere to the California Friendly Landscape program and choices of water-conserving plumbing fixtures and appliances. The HOA hired a landscaping company to maintain front yards for homeowners, who do have the flexibility to plant grass in their backyards among their California Friendly landscaping and maintain those spaces on their own.
“From a maintenance standpoint, California Friendly landscaping is a little lower maintenance,” says Chris Stamps, the project manager for John Laing Homes who was involved with the Sun City Holiday development. “And it’s an age-restricted development [age 55 and older], too, so people don’t want to maintain their landscaping as much. Their front yards are strictly maintained by the HOA and it’s because there are other age-restricted developments in the area—they want to make it similar to other age-restricted developments in the area.”
Stamps adds that much of the target market for this development does not really care for turf, a factor that favors the landscaping program’s specifications. “A lot of people don’t have young kids running around the yard as you’d find in more conventional developments,” he says. “So far, the surveys we’ve been getting back have been pretty good; [homeowners] are appreciative of having the HOA maintain their front yards. I think some people would like to have more green grass in their front yard, but we give them disclosures on a lot-by-lot basis that show exactly what landscaping is going to be in their yard, so they’re able to pick and choose a little more turf if they want it.”
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The builder first opened four model homes for the development in September 2005. In addition to building more than 50 production homes that will qualify for rebates under the program, John Laing is voluntarily constructing more than 100 homes that meet program specifications. Stamps indicates that, as time goes by, John Laing’s involvement in the California Friendly Homes program should pay off in terms of goodwill with local government officials.
“We just want to be a little more proactive with it,” Stamps says. “If you can tell an elected official that you’re involved in the California Friendly Homes program, and the water we use out here would be a lot less than on a conventional project, they say, ‘That’s great.’ The BIA likes to be involved in that part of it because as an industry it shows that we’re doing our due diligence and not being wasteful of water.”
May-June 2007
Conservation via Persuasion
Southern California water districts, homebuilders unite to launch unique pilot program that helps ensure adequate residential water supplies.
In southern California, the most populous and fastest-growing part of the most populous state, several production homebuilders have found that familiarizing homebuyers with surroundings that suit the local environment beats prescriptive water-conservation legislation that many claim is inevitable. As it is, state legislation passed earlier this decade mandates that developers document the long-term adequacy of a development’s local water supply prior to construction. Using financial incentives, “California Friendly” water-conservation programs launched by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) are persuading homebuilders to incorporate water conservation into the homes they build before the programs’ standards likely become law.
Such legislation is part of an overall trend in western states. According to a 2006 article in the Journal of the American Planning Association, many western states are requiring that the long-term adequacy of water supplies be ensured prior to granting approval for construction of new developments.
Lynn Lipinski, who manages California Friendly program marketing and outreach efforts for the MWD—a consortium of 26 cities and water districts serving about 18 million people in parts of six counties—notes that state legislation passed in 2001 motivated the MWD and homebuilders to begin making programs like California Friendly Homes and California Friendly Landscapes integral parts of their operations.
In effect in January 2002, the law prohibits cities and counties from issuing permits for construction of projects of 500 homes or more unless the local water agency verifies that it has enough water to serve the new growth over at least the next 20 years. Opponents called the legislation anti-growth, while the sponsor noted that it was the first in the state—whose population is increasing by nearly half a million annually—to integrate water-use planning with land-use planning. A companion bill mandates water supply assessments for all commercial or residential projects and expands consequences for urban water suppliers that do not submit and update their urban water management plans. It also requires a detailed analysis of groundwater supplies.
|
Photo: Bewaterwise.com |
| Bewaterwise.com is designed to increase awareness of water-conservation programs. |
Lipinski says, “That caused homebuilders to sit up and say, ‘Tell us more about this. What’s it going to take for us to save it so that new homes can be served?’ They have to get a letter from the local water agency that shows that they have the water to serve the new development. So it would help a builder to say that they’re using the most water-efficient landscape, which would reduce the amount of water needed per home.”
In response to these laws taking effect, the Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIA) developed the California Friendly pilot programs in conjunction with the MWD, the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in Riverside County, and the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). The programs, using a total of $269,505 contributed by the MWD, the EMWD, and the USBR, provide homebuilder members of the BIA with rebates for constructing homes with water-conserving landscaping, plumbing fixtures, appliances, and technologies.
Perhaps most importantly, these organizations are educating the public about the water-conservation potential that is achievable in construction. The MWD has invested significant resources in marketing materials designed to increase awareness of the programs among builders and homeowners, including a Web site, bewaterwise.com.
Outdoor Water Use Targeted
The California Friendly Landscape program used an $182,000 grant from the USBR to provide BIA homebuilder members with an incentive of 80 cents per square foot of California Friendly landscaping. The MWD contributed $45,500 for landscape rebates and $16,705 for smart irrigation controller rebates, while the EMWD contributed $25,300 for landscape rebates and labor. Besides the incentives, the program encouraged builders to voluntarily design landscapes that adhere to program standards.
Expected to cut outdoor water use in half and save about 9.7 million gallons or 30 acre-feet of water per year, the program is being used in 257 homes’ landscapes in the EMWD. Lipinski says that the program has two major components.
“We really promote those ET weather-based controllers,” she says of evapotranspiration-activated sprinkler controllers that turn on outdoor sprinkler systems when soil moisture and climactic conditions dictate. “We believe that if a homeowner wants to have turf and have it watered automatically, this is the perfect tool, as long as you have an efficient water system. If you have turf, you’re probably overwatering it. Most people who have landscapes of a certain size in California have automatic sprinkler systems, but they’re not changing those on a seasonal basis. Our high bar is that you should change it every week—seasonal would be good, too. We say the first thing is to look at how much you’re watering your turf and we bet you can cut it in half and it’ll still be healthy.”
The other major program component is a reduction of turf on a given property, Lipinski adds. The rebate program offers builders landscaping plans that utilize water-efficient plants as an alternative to thirsty turf, as well as runoff reduction and other environmentally sustainable landscaping.
“I’ve heard experts tell me that 350 square feet is all anyone uses for turf and anything beyond that is not used and you might as well plant something else,” Lipinski says. “Is it there as a default because you don’t know what else to do with it? We require new homebuilders to be within a water budget—we’re not actually dictating the amount of turf they have, but the water budget dictates that it’s not going to be very much. If they’re within a water budget, they’re using native California plants, which are plants that are either native to the area,” such as Bush anemone or California fuchsia that thrive entirely or almost entirely on rainfall, “or low-water-using imports that have not proven to be invasive in the area. Besides designing landscapes with California Friendly plants, the builders are also using a lot of different smart landscaping practices like trapping runoff or using hardscape to help reduce the overall amount that’s covered with landscape.”
Lipinski notes that homebuyers have been receptive to the landscape program. Often, the California Friendly front yard is designed by the developer and maintained by the homeowners’ association (HOA) and the homeowner has some latitude to design and maintain the backyard. “They are so excited by how low-maintenance the yard is and that tends to be the selling point for them—we saw that in our focus groups as well,” she says. “What sells the homebuyer on the home is that it’s beautiful and colorful and then it’s low maintenance—that’s what they come to love most about it. The fact that it’s the right thing to do is important, but low maintenance is the seller.”
David and Shannon Fafard recently purchased a new home in the Watermill at Adeline’s Farm development in French Valley, which received rebates for using California Friendly landscapes. “I really like the way the landscape looks, but the best part is how low maintenance it is,” says David Fafard. “I’ve barely had to touch it since moving in four weeks ago, and it still looks great.”
Standardizing Indoor Water-Use Reduction
The California Friendly Homes program provides rebates to homebuilders that showcase water-efficient plumbing fixtures and appliances, in addition to California Friendly landscaping, in the California Friendly Model Home program. In addition to a contribution of $250,000 and marketing materials for the model home program, the MWD provides financial incentives to builders that incorporate these items into production homes. The USBR also provided support of $80,000. The objective is to help builders promote water conservation and environmental sustainability to homebuyers.
This program gives up to $2,500 for each of 112 model homes that utilize high-efficiency toilets using dual-flush, pressure-assisted, and gravity-fed operating principles that yield 20% lower water use than standard 1.6-gallon-per-flush Ultra Low Flush Toilets required by the plumbing code, and high-efficiency clothes washers that have an Energy Star water factor of 6.0 or lower and are designed to save about 5,000 gallons per year.
Homeowners stand to benefit from the California Friendly programs, too, qualifying for incentives for having high-efficiency toilets, clothes washers, and smart irrigation controllers installed.
|
Photo: Shea Homes |
| Native California plants allow for beautiful landscaping without excessive water usage in new home developments. |
“Getting It Right the First Time”
A key attribute of California Friendly is that, currently, the programs provide financial assistance for new construction only—a much more cost-effective use of the incentives than retrofitting. The emphasis is on “getting it right the first time” on a production scale.
A longer-term, albeit less tangible, benefit of the programs is raising awareness of water-efficient technologies and landscaping among builders and homeowners. Two builders report that the transition to meeting California Friendly standards in constructing new developments has been a smooth one.
Bob Yoder, president of Shea Homes’ Inland Empire division, focuses on the level of water conservation that is possible by adherence to California Friendly Landscape program standards.
“We saw this coming,” he says. “We prefer to be on the edge of it instead of trying to play catch-up later; I think that within a few years, California Friendly landscapes will be mandated. We’ve made a commitment company-wide that even when we’re not doing California Friendly to use an ET transmitter, a satellite weather transmitter, and irrigation control on all of our homes in California—that in itself, assuming it’s monitored and managed correctly, is a significant chunk of water savings.”
Shea Homes opened to the public four model homes at the Watermill at Adeline’s Farm development in French Valley in summer 2006. By the end of 2007, Shea is expected to complete the 113-home, non-age-restricted development, which makes extensive use of California Friendly technologies and practices. Using incentives available in the pilot programs, Shea has gone a long way toward increasing homebuyers’ awareness of water-conservation potential, Yoder says. “Essentially, the program enabled us to do this at break-even and not a substantial additional cost. It allowed us to get our feet wet with the program a little bit and test the receptiveness of our consumers.”
Yoder adds that, while homebuyers are receptive to facilitating water conservation, they hardly notice the difference in the appearance of California Friendly landscapes. “My personal belief is that the whole paradigm of what a good landscape is in southern California—that is, the big front lawn—has to change to a different look,” he says. “We are essentially in a desert, but you go out to our models and it doesn’t look like a desert landscape. I think that if we didn’t advertise it and notify people, they wouldn’t notice it that much; at the same time, it’s achieving the water savings, so we definitely want to set an example in that area, and over the longer term, hopefully everybody will get on board.”
John Laing Homes designed the Sun City Holiday development with various landscapes that adhere to the California Friendly Landscape program and choices of water-conserving plumbing fixtures and appliances. The HOA hired a landscaping company to maintain front yards for homeowners, who do have the flexibility to plant grass in their backyards among their California Friendly landscaping and maintain those spaces on their own.
“From a maintenance standpoint, California Friendly landscaping is a little lower maintenance,” says Chris Stamps, the project manager for John Laing Homes who was involved with the Sun City Holiday development. “And it’s an age-restricted development [age 55 and older], too, so people don’t want to maintain their landscaping as much. Their front yards are strictly maintained by the HOA and it’s because there are other age-restricted developments in the area—they want to make it similar to other age-restricted developments in the area.”
Stamps adds that much of the target market for this development does not really care for turf, a factor that favors the landscaping program’s specifications. “A lot of people don’t have young kids running around the yard as you’d find in more conventional developments,” he says. “So far, the surveys we’ve been getting back have been pretty good; [homeowners] are appreciative of having the HOA maintain their front yards. I think some people would like to have more green grass in their front yard, but we give them disclosures on a lot-by-lot basis that show exactly what landscaping is going to be in their yard, so they’re able to pick and choose a little more turf if they want it.”
The builder first opened four model homes for the development in September 2005. In addition to building more than 50 production homes that will qualify for rebates under the program, John Laing is voluntarily constructing more than 100 homes that meet program specifications. Stamps indicates that, as time goes by, John Laing’s involvement in the California Friendly Homes program should pay off in terms of goodwill with local government officials.
“We just want to be a little more proactive with it,” Stamps says. “If you can tell an elected official that you’re involved in the California Friendly Homes program, and the water we use out here would be a lot less than on a conventional project, they say, ‘That’s great.’ The BIA likes to be involved in that part of it because as an industry it shows that we’re doing our due diligence and not being wasteful of water.”