New homes in California will face watering limits

[steve2470]

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/new-663625-rules-water.html

Water-guzzling lawns have taken significant flack in California’s four-year drought, and officials delivered another hit Friday by sharply limiting how much water newly constructed landscapes can use.

The limits came from the state’s Building Standard’s Commission in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order that urban water users cut back 25 percent during California’s four-year drought.

Builders and developers can meet the new rules by planting shrubs and bushes instead of grass, or by installing slow-trickling valves instead of traditional sprinklers.

“You can still see grass, you are just going to see a lot less of it,” said Bob Raymer of the California Building Industry Association, which supported the changes.