Show me the money! When a property owner values something highly, will offering an incentive change their view?
In Los Angeles, with its huge need for water savings, the Water & Power Department will pay the homeowner over a thousand dollars to get rid of their lawn. If you own a lawn like the ones in the movies, you need to produce evidence of what it looks like before you’ll be considered. Even this level of red tape may be a disincentive, or maybe people just like their lawns too much. In the four years the program has been running only 850 people have taken it up, ie around 200 households per year. Will stepping up the payment make sustainable options more attractive?
In a very different context, I remember a regional officer telling me when I worked in social capacity building for natural resource management, that interest in neighbours’ tree planting practices was what tended to bring cautious or conservative landowners on board. ‘Gee, that doesn’t look so bad ….’ Read more on the lawn killing incentive.
