We get asked about cash for grass almost every time somebody calls about tearing out a front lawn. The short version is that a lawn replacement rebate is real money in some parts of Santa Cruz County and does not exist at all in others, and the two districts that do pay have different enough rules that it changes how we would design the yard.
First, find out who bills you for water
This is the part people get wrong. Your water district is not the same thing as your mailing address. A house with a Santa Cruz address might be on City of Santa Cruz water, and a house a mile down the road in Soquel is on a different agency with different money on the table. Look at your water bill. The agency name is printed on it, and that one line decides whether this project comes with money attached.
Soquel Creek pays up to $2 per square foot
If Soquel Creek Water District bills you, their turf replacement rebate pays up to $2 per square foot of turf replaced with low-water-use plants. For single-family residential customers the maximum is $2,000 per fiscal year, and their fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. Commercial and multi-family customers can go up to $10,000 per fiscal year.
Run the math on that cap and it tells you something useful. At $2 per square foot, $2,000 covers 1,000 square feet of lawn. Plenty of front lawns around here are bigger, so you either accept the cap or phase the work across two fiscal years and claim it twice. Front yard one season, back yard the next.
One rule to know before you plan anything: artificial turf does not qualify at Soquel Creek. The rebate is written for low-water-use plants, so synthetic grass is on your own dime in this district.
The money comes back as a credit on your water bill rather than a check, and you have to be registered in the WaterSmart portal to apply. The detailed qualifications live on the application rather than the rebate page, so pull the application and read it before anybody starts digging.
Scotts Valley pays $2.00 per square foot, with looser rules
Scotts Valley Water District runs a program called Turf's Up! It pays $2.00 per square foot to replace existing irrigated lawn, and this is where it gets interesting. Scotts Valley counts any combination of low-water-use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or pervious hardscape. The synthetic grass Soquel Creek excludes is allowed a few miles up Highway 17, and so is a permeable patio.
Scotts Valley does require that existing high-volume irrigation be permanently disabled or converted to low-volume or subsurface irrigation. They will also consider low-water turf blends or groundcover paired with subsurface or rotary small-stream spray, which helps when somebody still wants a surface they can walk on. The catch is that this rebate cannot be combined with a spray irrigation rebate.
City of Santa Cruz and San Lorenzo Valley do not pay for lawn removal
We want to be straight about this, because plenty of statewide articles on California turf rebates read as though every district has one.
The City of Santa Cruz Water Department does not currently list a lawn removal or turf replacement rebate. What their water efficiency program does offer is free low-flow devices at the water department office on Locust Street, a landscape water budget calculator for irrigation-only accounts, and the AB 1572 nonfunctional turf restrictions, which cover commercial, institutional, and HOA properties rather than a homeowner's front lawn. Their customer assistance office is at 831-420-5230.
San Lorenzo Valley Water District does not list one either. Their outdoor rebates are a weather-based irrigation controller credit of up to $75 for sensor-based or up to $125 for signal-based, plus a greywater rebate of up to $150 per laundry to landscape system and up to $150 per household for a dual plumbed system.
Central Water District, which serves part of the Aptos area, lists only a residential toilet rebate and a residential clothes washer rebate, nothing for turf.
The sprinklers are usually the real work
Homeowners think of this as a plant job. In practice most of the labor is irrigation. A lawn runs on high-volume spray heads on one zone. A bed of drought tolerant plants wants low-volume drip, run longer and less often. You cannot swap the plants and leave the sprinklers alone, and at Scotts Valley converting that old irrigation is written into the rules.
The upside is that at Soquel Creek the irrigation work carries its own rebates. Their drip retrofit pays up to $20 for every 100 square feet converted from spray to low-volume drip or microspray, capped at the cost of materials, with a maximum of $1,000 per fiscal year for single-family customers. They also pay up to $25 for a rain sensor, and up to $40 per downspout for up to two downspouts when you redirect roof runoff into a rain garden, swale, or dry well. Stack those and the conversion pays for a good chunk of itself. More on the controller side in our post on smart irrigation controller rebates.
What goes in place of the lawn
Both districts say low-water-use plants and both mean it. What we plant depends on where you are, since coastal lots in Capitola and Live Oak deal with salt and wind while mountain lots get shade and heavier clay. Our working list is in the post on drought tolerant plants for Santa Cruz yards. Three things we tell everybody:
- Do not plant wall to wall. Mulch between plants costs less, holds soil moisture, and the districts count the converted area either way.
- Plan on real irrigation for the first two summers. Drought tolerant does not mean no water while roots establish.
- If somebody in the house wants a green surface for kids or dogs, we would rather shrink the lawn than pretend a planting bed does the same job. In Scotts Valley, price artificial turf instead, since it qualifies there.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the cash for grass rebate in Santa Cruz County?
Where it exists it is $2 per square foot, at Soquel Creek Water District (capped at $2,000 per fiscal year for single-family homes) and at Scotts Valley Water District through Turf's Up! The City of Santa Cruz and San Lorenzo Valley do not currently offer one.
Does artificial turf qualify for a lawn replacement rebate?
That depends entirely on your district. Soquel Creek Water District specifically excludes artificial turf. Scotts Valley Water District allows it, along with mulch and pervious hardscape.
Do I get a check or a bill credit?
At Soquel Creek it is a credit on your water bill, not a check. Both Soquel Creek and Scotts Valley require you to be a registered WaterSmart customer before you can apply.
Can I do the work myself and still get the rebate?
The eligibility rules sit on each district's rebate application rather than on the rebate page, so read the application first. Get it in hand before the old lawn comes out so you know what the district wants documented.
When is the best time to replace a lawn?
Fall. Planting in fall lets the winter rains establish the new plants, which cuts your first-year watering considerably.
Get a Free Estimate
PGS Landscape Company has been converting lawns around Santa Cruz County for over 40 years, and we have done enough of them to sort out the rebate side with you before the first shovel goes in. Give us a call at 831.254.3447 or reach us through our contact page for a free estimate.
Every rebate amount above was read off the issuing water district's own rebate page in August 2026. Programs change and funding runs out, so confirm current terms with your district before you budget around a number.