The Water-Wise Yard

LADWP lists a residential turf-replacement rebate. The application comes before turf removal, and amounts change (the LADWP turf replacement rebate page).

City Ordinance 188125, effective 2024-04-02, moved the lowest low impact development trigger to 2,500 sq ft of impervious area inside environmentally sensitive areas. Most small residential projects have no such duty (LA Sanitation report to Council, April 2026).

The building code exempts retaining walls up to 4 ft, measured from the bottom of the footing, with no surcharge and not on slopes steeper than 1:5 (Los Angeles Building Code section 101.5). The LADBS bulletin allows a wall without a permit only in its Figure 1 detail: reinforced block with at most 30 in exposed where a walkway sits behind (LADBS bulletin P/BC 2026-002). Terraces are drawn to the narrower line.

Walls of rubble or stacked block, including pre-manufactured stacked block, need a current LADBS Research Report or an approved-agency Evaluation Report (LADBS bulletin P/BC 2026-002).

A water tank supported directly on grade is exempt at 5,000 gal or less with a height-to-diameter ratio of 2:1 or less (Los Angeles Building Code section 101.5).

Inca masons cut terraces into hillsides and faced them in fitted stone, with gravel behind each wall so that water drained out and the wall stood dry. The yard terraces a slope the same way: a stone face, a drainage layer behind it and a level bed above.

Mayan builders surfaced plazas and roads in lime plaster over compacted limestone. The yard keeps its planting in mineral beds of gravel, crushed stone and lean soil, with plants chosen for dry summers.

Roman houses caught roof rain in a basin and stored it in a cistern below. The yard borrows the idea at yard scale: an on-grade tank, sized inside the code line and placed where a downspout can reach it.

Turf removal and disposal, after the rebate application is filed.

Rebate paperwork prepared and filed by us, with the amount confirmed at filing (the LADWP turf replacement rebate page).

Terraces and low walls drawn to the lines above, with sealed plans where LADBS requires them.

Mineral beds and drought-tolerant planting chosen for the sun and soil of the site.

Drip irrigation on a controller.

A water meter read before the work and another after it, recorded with their dates.

An on-grade rain tank inside the 5,000 gal line, where the site calls for one.

No water-saving figure. We state no percent of water saved until meter reads exist. The Standard lists the reads we will take.

No rebate amount. Amounts change. We confirm the amount at filing.

No stormwater credit. We claim no credit for stormwater or for low impact development.

No cooling figure. We state no temperature drop.

No fire claim for planting. Plants are chosen for dry summers. We make no fire claim for any plant, bed or cover.

No permit shortcut. We do not tell an owner that a wall needs no permit until LADBS reads the wall type.