Seeking to save water, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to have municipal-owned parking lots built with materials that enable the ground to soak up rain water.
City Councilman Bob Blumenfield’s proposal is aimed at replenishing ground water supplies. The motion also calls for replacing grass lawns with drought-tolerant plants. It comes a few weeks after the council voted to stop watering city lawns bigger than 1,000 square feet.
Sports fields were exempted from the watering ban. City officials told the council today that they were taking steps to reduce water consumption by 400 million gallons a year at city parks and golf courses.
Recreation and Parks General Manager Mike Shull said he would implement water-saving measures in about 40 projects through measures such as switching to recycled water and replacing grass with mulch or drought-tolerant plants.
“Every project that we do now — everything is looked at with water conservation in mind,” Shull said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti wants to reduce water use citywide by 20 percent by 2017. The incentive for replacing grass lawns was also raised from $3 to $3.75 per square foot.
— City News Service