California regulators are expected to vote Friday on water limits for new lawns as the historic drought persists.
The Building Standards Commission is scheduled to consider updating landscaping ordinances for new and renovated homes, office buildings, schools and hospitals.
The proposal comes in response to Gov. Jerry Brown's executive order to save water because of continuing dry conditions in the fourth year of the drought.
The rules don't spell out how lawns should be watered or what types of grass and shrubs should be planted, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Department of General Services.
Instead, the standards lay out how much water should be used depending on the size of landscapes.
The State Water Resources Control Board has already prohibited watering lawns that don't meet rules developed by the commission.
California officials have targeted the watering of ornamental lawns as an easy sacrifice for saving water, noting that outdoor irrigation accounts for roughly half of residential water use.
California
Communities are under order to cut water use by as much as 36 percent compared to 2013 levels.
Programs giving residents cash to rip out grass and add drought-tolerant shrubs and bushes are growing in popularity.
Brown's executive order also called for a ban on traditional sprinklers in favor of drip irrigation and micro spray. His administration has since decided that wasn't an effective way of saving water.
