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Committee amends and advances ‘water-wise landscaping’ bill after extensive stakeholder input
Summary
Senate Bill 305, a water-wise landscaping amendment limited to state facilities, was amended in committee and advanced with a divided committee reaction after considerable public testimony from water districts, agricultural groups and turf industry representatives.
Senator Stratton presented Senate Bill 305, a measure to codify terms such as "functional turf," "active use" and canopy definitions and to apply water-wise landscaping requirements initially to state facilities. "We are either in drought or we're preparing for the next one," Candace Hosniger, director of the Division of Water Resources, told the committee and supported the bill's goal to reduce outdoor municipal and industrial use; she said "60% of our municipal and industrial water use is used outdoors on our landscapes."
Senator Stratton offered and the committee adopted a one-word amendment replacing "or" with "and" on line 37 to narrow the bill's standard (the transcript records the amendment process). Multiple water conservancy districts and interest groups testified. The Utah Farm Bureau supported research, education and marketing of drought‑tolerant turf varieties but opposed ordinances that outright limit turf. Jordan Valley and other water districts asked the committee to refine the "functional turf" definition and said defining it in code without broader alignment could confuse the public and undo prior educational efforts. Turf industry and sod-farming witnesses argued against restrictive measures and urged focus on smarter irrigation and drought-tolerant species.
Senators debated whether the bill constituted a statutory "war on turf" or an appropriate conservation tool. Senator Sandoval said she could not support statutory limits on turf and announced she would vote no. After discussion, the sponsor said he would continue stakeholder work to refine definitions and implementation guidance. The committee took a roll-call vote on the amended bill; the recorded vote in committee was 4 in favor, 3 opposed (the chair noted tie and procedural entries; the clerk recorded the result as the bill passing out of committee). Several senators stated they would continue work on functional-turf language before floor action.
