new law requires removal of nonfunctional (never walked on) grass in Las Vegas
Where Lawns Are Outlawed (and Dug Up, and Carted Away)With drought and growth taking a toll on the Colorado River, the source of 90 percent of the region’s water, a new law in Las Vegas mandates the removal of turf, patch by patch.
Jaime Gonzalez of Par 3 Landscape and Maintenance removed grass at a condominium complex in Las Vegas. The lawn is considered “nonfunctional” under a new state law.
Wrangling a heavy gas-powered sod cutter, Mr. Gonzalez sliced the turf away from the soil underneath, like peeling a potato. Two co-workers followed, gathering the strips for disposal.
Mr. Gonzalez took little pleasure in destroying this patch of fescue. “But it’s better to replace it with something else,” he said. The ground would soon be covered with gravel dotted with plants like desert spoon and red yucca.
Under a state law passed last year that is the first of its kind in the nation, patches of grass like this, found along streets and at housing developments and commercial sites in and around Las Vegas, must be removed in favor of more desert-friendly landscaping.
The offense? They are “nonfunctional,” serving only an aesthetic purpose. Seldom, if ever, walked on and kept alive by sprinklers, they are wasting a resource, water, that has become increasingly precious.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/climate/las-vegas-lawn-grass-ban.html
Larry Fossan, facilities maintenance manager at Sun City Anthem, a large planned community near Las Vegas, on a stretch of lawn that will have to be removed.
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The southwest region of Las Vegas is expanding.
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I think AZ has done this for some time now as well as CA. They then do hardscaping around it.
A bunch of the Ag departments of the western universities have been spearheading some of it.
I even found this article from almost 10 years ago regarding your state - https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/lifestyle/2013/08/28/new-texas-law-forbids-hoas-to-ban-some-water-conservation-methods/
Fall is obviously better but as long as any plants are well watered and mulched, it can be done. Am guessing they use gravel as a mulch as well.
Get some dragonfruit trained up and spilling over an arbor in a hard-scaped area. Get some colorful bougies with gravel around them. Of course citrus is a given. (sorry getting carried away - I have 4 small citrus trees, a fig, a tropical hibiscus, 2 plumerias, and a stephanotis in my basement overwintering and waiting to go out if the temps would just settle down here 
)
I do know that the climate there is opposite to places like California where California has its "rainy season" getting ready to end soon (after the "gray May" / "June gloom" ) and Florida has its "rainy season" about to get started, where the dry season is during winter (when there are brushfires/wildfires).
And the way they are cutting up the sod in the OP article, it makes me wonder if they are actually going to preserve and resell it elsewhere. I think they use the more expensive zoysia for the golf turf here but I expect most people are using some mix heavy on the perennial rye and fescue with Kentucky bluegrass in the mix. I have seen some had sod put down that promptly goes dormant and brown during the summer and i expect they didn't realize what the landscaper was giving them and how it requires quite a bit of water to establish and maintain in summer (particularly any that might be heavy with Kentucky blue and tall fescue).
I just had over 3" rain the past couple days (almost a month's worth) and have also had below normal temps this month, so the grass is loving it.
Most here who try to "kill" grass to remove will just put a tarp over it and dig it up later.will find drought-tolerant native perennials to use and there has been quite a bit of hybridization of them to get some nice flowering/foliage combos (e.g., many sages and agastaches- hummingbird favorites, the daisies like rubheckia (black-eyed susans), Echinacea (coneflowers), etc, and definitely the buddleias (butterfly bushes) and even the iteas (ninebark)).
Many of the plants here in my area often need the opposite to deal with periods of inundation and wet soil however, but xeriscaping them can actually be beneficial for drainage too.
I got some divisions of Rudbeckia laciniata (tall coneflowers) about 4 years ago and I don't think I have ever had a perennial that was as self-seeding as that! The birds like the dried seed-heads in late fall but those seeds... 
It is one of those wet-tolerant plants though. Most of these flowers are great butterfly plants.
I'd rather they just left the natural desert floor, which releases heat at night.
But, most people don't like that natural look.
like Vegas is near Lake Mead, which is now at record low levels.
