Florida Town OKs Grass-Free Lawns

Alternative front lawns that use plantings, shells or even gravel were just made legal in Belleair Beach, Fla., even though they were there already.

The city council of Belleair Beach, Fla., has passed an ordinance that allows residents to exchange their grass landscaping for rocks, pebbles, plantings and other ''Florida-friendly'' materials.

The new landscaping rules, which passed on a 5-2 vote at the council?EUR??,,????'???s May 7 regular meeting, allow the use of ''any combination of living plants (such as grass, ground cover, shrubs, vines, hedges or trees) and non-living landscape materials (such as rocks, pebbles, sand mulch, walls, fences, or decorative paving materials).'' The previous rule, on the books since 2002, required lawns to consist solely of ''permeable vegetative green space.''

A number of properties in Belleair Beach with alternative landscaping, previously under threat of citation, were made legal by the passage of the ordinance.

The city council discussion was started by a complaint about a local elderly couple that replaced the grass on their property with rocks and stones to make maintenance easier, City Manager Nancy Gonzalez said. Authorities decided to defer citing the couple until the city council reviewed the issue.

''There were a lot of yards that have been nothing but gravel for twenty years, but we had never received complaints about them,'' said Gonzalez.

The council members that approved the rule change saw the benefits of legalizing landscaping that had already been in place for years, and encouraging alternative lawns that reduce the need for irrigation and fertilizer.

''As long as you keep [your lawn] up and make it look nice,'' said Belleair Beach resident Ed Wisniowski. ''You can do whatever you want as long as it keeps neat.''