Doña Ana County, NM Water Use Rules: Turf Replacement Rebates (2026)

Section 350-507, Landscaping, buffering, and fencing, sets the water-conscious framework for required landscaping in the county's Chihuahuan Desert climate. Within the public right-of-way landscaping standards at § 350-507F, the code states flatly that turf, regardless of irrigation method, is prohibited in this area, meaning the planter strips where trees are required along road frontages cannot be planted in grass no matter how it is watered. The same ban repeats at § 350-507G(6) for vehicular use areas, the landscaped buffers required around parking lots, driveways, and loading areas, closing off turf as an option in those zones too.

These bans sit inside a broader ground-cover framework at § 350-507E(11), which caps turf differently depending on slope: turf is not permitted at all on slopes of 6:1 or greater anywhere in a required landscape area. Subsection E(9) reinforces the no-turf direction further by barring synthetic lawns and artificial turf from counting toward any required landscaping, so neither living grass nor artificial turf substitutes are creditable in the restricted areas. Combined with the requirement that low water-use plants make up at least half of provided live plant cover under § 350-507E(7), the turf bans function as the county's water-conservation landscaping tool in the areas it applies to, even though the county does not run a turf-removal rebate program of its own.