The main issue is we should get the well-maintained attractive landscaping we are paying for; water restrictions should not be an excuse for poor landscaping.
As for water restrictions, 20+ years ago turf was required for new construction because it gives quality-of-life, pleasant ecosystem and cooling (unlike rocks). This is what people paid for back then. However, SNWA only has 300,000 acre-feet of water from Lake Mead – in the era of unlimited growth, they are moving our water northeast to Apex, northwest to Skye Canyon and beyond, west to Blue Diamond and beyond, and the $2 billion Horizon Lateral project to move our water south to Sloan & Jean. Construction moratoriums to control water use? No way.
The federal government manages every gallon of water in Lake Mead; the decline in lake level is SNWA’s clever excuse to claim that spreading their allotment all over Southern Nevada has anything to do with “conservation,” demonizing perfectly good quality-of-life grass as “nonfunctional turf,” something we initially paid for. But now, every gallon you “save” is worth something like $10,000 in the pocket of an apartment developer – just drive 15 minutes in any direction around this valley. No “conservation.” So sad!