Dear Red Phone,
The City of Morgan Hill has been telling us how important it is to conserve water during the drought. But why did they just put in a huge lawn at City Hall, and why are they still allowing people to put in new swimming pools?
Red Phone response:
The new vegetation at City Hall is actually part of a larger project to replace thirstier landscaping with “drought tolerant” plants and groundcovers at city facilities throughout Morgan Hill.
And while the City Council did in fact prohibit filling and refilling swimming pools in Morgan Hill in April 2015, when the body declared a “Level 2 water supply shortage” in response to the drought, which is now in its fourth year. However, the council took back this restriction in July after city staff followed up with a report that swimming pools are not a significant water waster. Rather than ban new pools outright, the council adopted a new restriction requiring all new pools to be covered, the idea being they will not lose as much water to evaporation and therefore require frequent topping off.
“In the months after these (April 2015) rules were imposed, it became apparent that just prohibiting pool filling with city-delivered potable water wasn’t a particularly appropriate restriction as research indicated that a covered pool could actually consume about the same amount of water as a normal lawn,” Morgan Hill Program Administrator Anthony Eulo said.
In 2015, the city issued 33 permits for new swimming pools, added Morgan Hill Community Services Coordinator Nichole Martin Parker.
Back on the subject of the new landscaping at city properties, the new lawn you refer to at the Civic Center campus—located on Peak Avenue between the council chambers and the Development Services Center—is planted with a groundcover known as Kurapia, Eulo said.
“Developed specifically to require less water and maintenance than regular turf, Kurapia will bloom throughout most of the summer and should be able to withstand the light foot traffic it will get in the garden,” Eulo said. “Once established, it also should suppress weeds as it has thick dense growth and should only require mowing once or twice per year. While it looks like grass currently, particularly from afar, the Kurapia will ultimately grow up a bit and ultimately look more like a ground cover in the future.”
City crews will water the new lawn by hand for the first weeks, and then rely on an installed drip irrigation system, Eulo added.
In addition to the Morgan Hill Civic Center, the city has expanded its network of “water conservation demonstration gardens” to the Police Department, the Dunne-Hill Fire Station, the Community and Cultural Center and the Morgan Hill Dennis Kennedy Aquatics Center.
