Surprise, AZ Water Use Rules: Turf Replacement Rebates (2026)

Surprise adopted its water conservation article, City Code Chapter 58, Article VII, on May 8, 2012 (Ord. No. 2012-06), and Division 2 of that article specifically bars private parties from writing anti-turf language into deed restrictions. Sec. 58-596, headed "Artificial or synthetic turf," states plainly that no person may impose a private covenant, condition, restriction, deed clause or other agreement that keeps another owner from installing synthetic turf, and that artificial turf "shall be allowed on all surfaces where landscape can be applied." That second sentence matters: it is not a permit standard with setbacks or square-footage caps, it is a blanket allowance covering any spot on a lot where sod, gravel, or desert planting could otherwise go.

The same division protects natural water-efficient landscaping through the companion Sec. 58-595, which bars covenants that block water-efficient plant material "provided such landscaping receives appropriate architectural review approval," and adds that a design cannot be rejected "solely on the basis that such design makes use of water efficient landscaping." Read together, the two sections were written to stop homeowners associations and older subdivision CC&Rs, many of which predate Surprise's desert-water conservation push, from forcing residents into thirsty turf lawns. Neither section requires a city permit application specific to turf conversion; the override operates as a defense against a private covenant rather than a city licensing scheme.