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Arvada Funny Grass Politics
Funny Grass Politics in Arvada
In Arvada, Colorado there is a turf war
waging regarding one of the city’s own projects. The project
involved recruiting two individuals to take part in an
experiment involving their lawns. Luanne Stenho was one of the
two selected individuals and she participated in the project,
which consisted of remodeling her lawn using xeriscape
landscaping. Xeriscape landscaping, or landscaping that does not
require supplemental irrigation, was part of a large campaign in
Arvada advocating "wise-water" solutions in an effort to
conserve water. The idea wasn’t so farfetched in terms of
increasing notability and people’s inclination to take actions
regarding this issue in Arvada. Unfortunately, though, at least
one individual couldn’t or chose not to see the bigger picture
of Luanne’s lawn in terms of water conservation, instead someone
decided to take it upon themselves or themselves respectively,
to measure the length of Luanne’s grass. Noting that it was
longer than the law-mandating 12inches, the associating parties
filed a complaint for action to be taken against Luanne.
Arvada did just that too, taking action against Luanne,
demanding that she chop down her grass to the law-mandated
height or be susceptible to the consequence. Luanne pleaded for
some leniency in the matter due to her special circumstance.
Unfortunately however they fell on def ears because there was no
avail for her case in that direction. She also tried to argue
that her grass would suffer if it was chopped too early; this is
because in the xerioscopic nature of the grass its seeds grow
closer to the top of the blade and would be removed if cut too
soon. This did not suffice either. Finally, she tried to plea
that she would cut 2/3s of the grass and leave the other one
third. Again… no. If Luanne does not cut her grass, the city
will send workers to cut it for her and she will be billed
accordingly. The hefty fine could also be pursued through court
action.
It’s unfortunate that this is happening to Luanne because she
shut-out a crucial $2,000.00 for the landscaping project and
though it’s true that the city put $6,000.00 on the project, its
war seems to be conflicting with itself. The focus of this
issue, the grass, is widely-believed to be a great alternative
method to obtain grass without also obtaining a high bill for
water wastage. For instance, most lawns are watered 2 or 3 times
daily with sprinklers for 5 to 10 minutes at time. That’s a lot
of water seven days a week. Luanne only waters her lawn once
every 3 weeks for 30 minutes; but her lawn won’t grow if the
seeds are chopped off though. She claims that no municipal code
was mentioned to her during the construction of the project.
She’s only mad that the city refuses to come to her aid in the
matter. She is now pursuing to have the municipal law changed to
incorporate xerioscopic lawns. If she is unsuccessful the
experiment will have achieved the opposite of its desired
inspirational effect; although the fact that it’s an experiment
means that the testers wanted to know what would happen if this
was implemented; I guess that question was answered. |
