Take the lawn out, put in landscape that survives a Temecula summer. Designed from day one to qualify for the rebate and pass city review.
Projects approved under Metropolitan’s earlier $7 per square foot commercial rate must be finished by September 30, 2026. Not applied for. Completed. Anything still unfinished after that date drops to $4 per square foot. On a 20,000 square foot conversion that is a $60,000 swing. If you are holding a reservation and the work has not started, call today.
The commercial turf replacement program pays for every square foot of live grass converted to water-efficient landscape. The Metropolitan Water District base rebate is $2.00 per square foot, covering up to 50,000 square feet per water meter address per fiscal year. Your local retail agency may stack a supplemental incentive on top of that, so the real number for your address is often higher.
The money is real. What trips people up is that the rebate isn’t paid for removing grass. It’s paid for replacing it correctly. Miss one requirement and the application gets denied, usually after the lawn is already gone and the money is already spent.
That’s the entire reason this service exists. We design the replacement landscape so it satisfies the program rules and the city’s landscape requirements at the same time.
Program terms verified against SoCal Water$mart’s published commercial program pages in August 2026. Amounts and rules change with funding, so we confirm current terms against your address before anyone commits to anything.
The program requires an approved reservation of funds before the lawn comes out. Projects that begin or finish before that approval are not eligible. If a contractor has already scraped the turf, call before you go any further.
This is the requirement that costs Temecula property owners the most money, and almost nobody knows it until it’s too late.
To qualify for a turf replacement rebate you must have existing, living grass at the time of inspection. Dead turf, dying turf, and bare dirt are all ineligible. The program is designed to buy out water use that is still happening, not to reimburse a lawn that already failed.
Now connect that to how most owners arrive at this decision. The lawn struggles through a hot summer. Irrigation gets cut back to save money. The grass browns out. Eventually the city sends a landscape code notice about dead lawn or bare dirt, and only then does the owner start looking for a fix.
By that point the rebate that would have paid for a large share of the conversion is gone. You are now paying full price to solve a code violation, with a deadline on the letter.
If your lawn is still green, even barely, you are in the window. If you have already received a notice, the rebate route may be closed and the conversation is a different one. See how we handle code enforcement notices.
Not from the city. Here’s who’s actually involved, and where to read the rules yourself.
Regional wholesaler, funds the rebate
A consortium of 26 cities and water districts supplying Southern California, including Riverside County. Metropolitan funds the $2.00 per square foot base rebate, and your project must sit inside its service area to qualify at all.
mwdh2o.comProgram administrator, where you apply
Metropolitan’s rebate program. This is where the commercial turf replacement application is filed, where funds are reserved, and where the current per-square-foot amounts and eligibility rules are published.
socalwatersmart.comLocal retail agency, may add money
Serves much of the Temecula Valley. Local agencies frequently stack a supplemental incentive on top of the regional rebate, so the total available for your address can be higher than the $2.00 base figure.
ranchowater.comLocal retail agency, may add money
Serves a large part of western Riverside County, including areas around Temecula, Murrieta, and Menifee. Which of the two agencies applies to you depends on the meter, not the city limits.
emwd.orgUnder California’s non-functional turf rules, non-residential properties including office parks, HOAs, commercial sites, and schools are prohibited from irrigating decorative grass with potable water beginning in January 2027. Converting now, with rebate funding in play, is considerably cheaper than converting later because you have to. Waiting also risks the lawn dying first, which forfeits the rebate entirely.
Rebate amounts and funding change from year to year, and popular programs can run out of money mid-season. Don’t plan a conversion around a figure you read last year. Call and we’ll check what’s currently open for your address.
This structure is where most self-managed projects fall apart.
Part one: reserve the funds. Before any grass is touched, you apply with measurements, photographs of the existing turf, and a landscape plan showing the converted area and your stormwater retention feature. The agency reviews it and inspects the property. Approval comes back with an estimated rebate amount based on the square footage you submitted.
That number matters more than people realize. Once your project start is approved, the rebate cannot be increased later. Measure short and you eat the difference permanently. This is the single most common reason a conversion pays less than the owner expected.
Part two: request the rebate. Once approved you have 180 days to complete the work and submit the post-project application with documentation of what was installed. Miss the window and the reservation lapses.
We handle both halves. The measuring, the plan, the photo documentation, the submittal, and the reviewer comments that come back in between.
A designed landscape that still reads as a maintained, professional property.
California Friendly and native species chosen for our heat, our soil, and the sun exposure on your specific site, laid out to clear the three plants per hundred square feet requirement with margin rather than exactly.
Bark mulch, DG, and permeable surfacing at the right depth to hold moisture and suppress weeds. Non-permeable hardscape inside the converted area disqualifies it, so the surfacing spec is not a cosmetic decision.
A rain garden, dry creek bed, swale, or grading approach that keeps rainfall on site. This is a required program feature, not an upgrade, and it has to appear on the plan you submit.
Every overhead spray head in the project area has to be removed, capped, or converted to drip, micro-spray, bubblers, or high-efficiency rotating nozzles. We specify the zoning, emitters, and establishment schedule.
Measurements, the required color photographs of the existing turf, forms, the post-project submittal, and responses to reviewer comments. We stay on the file rather than handing over a plan and disappearing.
Your installer is yours to choose. Once the plan is approved, we’re available to walk them through the drawings so what gets built matches what was approved and what gets inspected.
Ornamental lawn is usually the single largest water user on a commercial site, and the one nobody actually uses. That is exactly the grass these programs are designed to remove, and exactly the grass the 2027 rules target.
Plenty of properties keep a usable turf area, something like a courtyard or a picnic lawn that people genuinely walk on, and convert only the decorative parts. Functional recreational turf is treated differently from decorative turf under both the rebate and the mandate.
This is a design and consulting office. We measure, design, document, and carry the paperwork through the agency. We will walk your contractor through the drawings so the work matches what was approved.
We do not remove turf, install landscape, or supply crews, and we don’t select or hire contractors on your behalf. You choose your own installer. That also means our plant and material choices are never steered by what a nursery happens to have in stock.
The Metropolitan Water District base rebate is $2.00 per square foot, covering up to 50,000 square feet per water meter address per fiscal year. Your local retail agency, which in this area is usually Rancho California Water District or Eastern Municipal Water District, may add a supplemental incentive on top. Rates are set at the time your application is approved and change with funding availability, so we confirm the current number against your specific address before you plan around it. Figures here reflect the published program terms as of August 2026.
No, and this is the most expensive mistake people make. You must apply for and receive an approved reservation of funds before any turf comes out. Projects started or completed before that approval are not eligible, and once the grass is gone the evidence the program needs is gone with it.
Almost certainly not. The program requires existing living turf at the time of inspection. Dead turf, dying turf, and bare dirt are all ineligible, because the rebate is buying out water use that is currently happening. If your lawn has already failed, the conversion still makes sense on maintenance cost and on the January 2027 rules, but it will likely be self-funded. Call before you assume either way.
Projects approved under Metropolitan’s earlier $7 per square foot commercial rate must be completed by September 30, 2026 to receive that amount. Projects not finished by then drop to $4 per square foot. If you are holding an approved reservation at the higher rate and work has not started, the schedule is now the most important part of your project.
Yes. At least 250 square feet of turf has to be removed, or the entire turf area if the site has less than that. On commercial properties this is rarely the binding constraint. The 50,000 square foot annual cap per meter address is the one large sites actually run into.
Not under this program. Synthetic turf is explicitly not an approved conversion option, and neither is any other turf-looking grass. The replacement has to be living, low-water planting at three plants per hundred square feet, with a stormwater retention feature and permeable surfacing.
Yes. A rainwater retention or filtration element is a required part of every turf replacement project, not an optional upgrade. It can take several forms, including a rain garden, dry creek bed, swale, or a grading approach that keeps runoff on site, and it has to be shown on the plan you submit.
No. This is a design and consulting office. We measure, design, document, and handle the submittal. Removal and installation are done by a contractor you hire directly. Once the plan is approved we’re available to walk your contractor through the drawings, but we don’t supply crews or select contractors for you.
The design phase is the part we control. Agency review and property inspection is the part we manage but can’t compress. Once your funds are reserved you have 180 days to finish the work and submit the post-project application, so the installation schedule needs to be realistic before you accept the reservation.
Only if it’s designed badly. The three plants per hundred square feet requirement exists precisely to prevent that, and a good plant palette gives you structure, color, and seasonal change without the water.
Riverside County is the primary service area. Projects in neighboring counties are considered case by case depending on size and schedule.
Bring the address and a rough idea of the square footage. The first conversation is free, and you’ll leave it knowing whether a conversion makes sense.