Written and reviewed by the design team at Edge Design Company, Ogden, Utah. Program details verified against the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District published rules, July 2026. Always confirm current terms with the District before you start.
There is a program running right now that will pay you to tear out your lawn, and most homeowners in Weber and Davis County have never heard of it.
The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District runs the Landscape Lawn Exchange. Remove living lawn, replace it with water-wise planting, and the District pays you $1.25 to $2.50 per square foot — up to $50,000 per property. Take out 1,000 square feet of grass in a $2.50 city and that is $2,500 back toward a yard you actually wanted anyway.
It is a real, funded program. It is also easy to disqualify yourself from in about ten minutes of enthusiasm with a sod cutter. So read the next section before you touch anything.
The one mistake that costs people thousands
Do not remove or kill the grass before you apply.
That is the whole warning, and it is the single most expensive mistake we see. The District has to send someone out to look at your lawn while it is still living and in place to measure the area you are converting. No lawn at the site visit means nothing to measure. Nothing to measure means no money — and there is no appeal and no exception.
People spray it in April, call somebody in June, and find out the $2,400 they were counting on evaporated with the sod.
Apply first. Get approved. Then start.
What it pays, and where
The rate depends on your city, because it is tied to whether the city has adopted water-efficient landscape standards.
$2.50 per square foot: Clearfield, Clinton, Farr West, Layton, Riverdale, Roy, South Ogden, Sunset, Syracuse, Uintah, Washington Terrace, West Haven, West Point, plus unincorporated Weber County (except Ogden Valley) and much of Davis County — Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, Fruit Heights, Kaysville, North Salt Lake, West Bountiful and Woods Cross.
$1.25 per square foot: North Ogden, Pleasant View, Plain City, Harrisville, Hooper, Huntsville, Marriott-Slaterville, South Weber, Morgan City and Morgan County.
The program covers Weber, Davis, Morgan and Summit counties. If your city is not on either list, do not assume you are out — some areas are served by a different water provider. Weber Basin has a “Who Is My Provider?” lookup. Check before you write it off.
What actually qualifies
The rules are specific, and this is where good intentions go sideways. To qualify you need:
- At least 250 square feet of existing, living, healthy lawn removed.
- Low-water plants covering at least 35% of the converted area at maturity. Annuals and vegetable beds do not count toward that coverage.
- 3 to 4 inches of mulch — bark, rock or gravel.
- One drought-tolerant shade tree per 3,000 square feet of project area (exceptions for powerlines and existing canopy).
- Low-volume drip irrigation in every planting area — visible filters and pressure regulators, emitters rated 5 gallons per hour or less, and spray and drip on separate valves. No micro-spray, no bubblers, no soaker hoses.
What does NOT qualify — including some of what we sell
We would rather tell you this up front than have you find out at the final inspection.
Hardscape does not count. If you rip out lawn and pour a patio, lay pavers, or put down artificial turf, that square footage earns you nothing. Same with concrete. The District is buying living, low-water landscape — not a hard surface.
That matters, because a fair amount of what we design is exactly that — patios, decks, pool surrounds. Those are great projects. They are not rebate projects. If a designer tells you your new paver patio qualifies for the lawn exchange, they have not read the rules.
Also not eligible: swapping your lawn for a different drought-tolerant turfgrass (it is a lawn removal program, not a lawn upgrade program), and replacing drip, mulch, rock or plants you already have.
The honest version: the incentive pays for the planted, water-wise portion of your yard. Design the whole space properly, and let the incentive offset the part it is actually meant to offset.
How the process runs
- Apply online at mywaterutah.org. There is no paper application.
- Describe the lawn area coming out and what is going back in.
- Weber Basin schedules a virtual site visit over Zoom.
- Sign the program agreement — notarization required — and submit a W-9.
- Get approval. Now you can start.
- Finish within 12 months and submit completion photos.
- Book the final in-person inspection — it has to happen while irrigation is still on so the inspector can watch the drip system run. Do not schedule it in December.
- Check arrives by mail, usually about three weeks after final approval.
Photograph everything as you go: lawn before, lawn removed, irrigation converted to drip, plants in, final with mulch. The District asks for all five.
Funding is first-come, first-served
This is not an entitlement. Weber Basin funds it from a pot, and when the pot is empty, applications get paused or denied. Projects already approved keep their funding — which is another argument for applying early in the season rather than deciding in August that you would like some money.
Where we come in
You do not need a designer to get the incentive. Plenty of people do it themselves with a shovel and a Saturday.
Where we earn our keep is the part the program does not care about but you will live with for twenty years: whether the thing looks good. A lawn exchange done badly is a field of gravel with nine sad shrubs in it, and you will hate it by the second summer. Done well, it is the nicest part of the yard and it costs almost nothing to water.
We design backyards around how Utah actually behaves — brutal July sun, alkaline soil, real winters — and we plan the planting so it hits that 35% coverage at maturity and reads as intentional. If you want to see it before it exists, we build 3D mockups so you can walk the plan first.
And if the incentive does not fit your project, we will say so.
Common questions
How much does the Weber Basin lawn removal rebate pay?
$1.25 to $2.50 per square foot of living lawn removed and replaced with water-wise landscaping, up to $50,000 per property. The rate depends on your city — $2.50 in cities that adopted water-efficient landscape standards (Roy, Layton, Clearfield, South Ogden, West Haven and others), $1.25 elsewhere (North Ogden, Pleasant View, Plain City, Huntsville, Morgan and others).
Can I remove my lawn before applying for the rebate?
No — and this permanently disqualifies you. The lawn must be living and in place when Weber Basin does the initial site visit, because that is how they measure the area. If the grass is already removed or killed, there is nothing to measure and you get nothing. Apply and get approved first.
Does a patio or artificial turf qualify for the lawn exchange?
No. Replacing lawn with hardscape, concrete, pavers or artificial turf is not eligible. The program pays for living, low-water planting — at least 35% plant coverage at maturity, 3 to 4 inches of mulch, and low-volume drip irrigation.
How much lawn do I have to remove to qualify?
At least 250 square feet of existing, healthy, living lawn. It can be anywhere on the property, and you have 12 months from approval to finish the work.
Worth doing
Most rebate programs are not worth the paperwork. This one is. Two and a half dollars a square foot against a yard you were probably going to redo anyway is real money, and the water bill drops afterward.
Just apply before you kill the grass.
Thinking about converting a lawn? Talk to us first. We will tell you what qualifies, what does not, and what it will actually look like. Get in touch.
While you are at it: most Utah lawns are being overwatered on a schedule that was never right. Here is how long you should actually run your sprinklers — and the four reasons a lawn stays brown no matter how much water you throw at it.