Time to create some artificial turf rules! 

Legislative Alert – Governor Brown signs law protecting artificial turf installed by homeowners. 

In 2010 and 2011 bills were debated in Sacramento that would have had the effect of outlawing any prohibition on the use of artificial turf or synthetic surface that resembles grass. Both of these bills passed through the California Legislature only to be vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger and then Governor Brown based on ideals of self-governance.

In a historical turn of events, Governor Brown has signed Assembly Bill 349 which prohibits homeowners associations from barring the installation of “artificial turf or any other synthetic surface that resembles grass.”  The law is effective immediately and is one of many pieces of legislation designed to conserve water in reaction to this prolonged drought. According to the Department of Water Resources, landscape irrigation represents 43% of urban water use.

The Legislative Analysis from the Assembly Floor and the Senate Rules Committee respectively suggest that, as with low-water using plant materials, a homeowners association could establish reasonable design and quality restrictions about the type of artificial turf a homeowner can use, including for example, the color and replacement requirements, as long as those restrictions do not effectively make it impossible for a homeowner to install artificial turf.

The new law also prohibits homeowners associations from requiring an owner to “reverse or remove the water-efficient landscaping measures” that were installed in response to a declaration of a state of emergency due to drought upon the conclusion of the state of emergency. While there is no further explanation on how this portion of the law will be applied, it would seem to mean that an association cannot include a list of low-water using landscaping or artificial landscaping in its architectural guidelines only to later create a rule requiring that these once-approved materials be removed upon the conclusion of the drought.