AB 1572 RFPs Live Now: Contractor 2025-2031 Compliance Timeline

What AB 1572 actually means for your bid sheet

California's nonfunctional turf restrictions phase in over several years, starting with state and local government sites, then commercial properties, then homeowners associations. If you bid landscape work in California, the practical answer is this: build turf conversion, irrigation retrofit, and low-water plant palettes into every RFP response now, even for clients whose compliance deadline is years out. Public agencies are already writing turf conversion square footage and irrigation retrofit line items into solicitations, and HOA boards are asking landscape committees about it during annual contract renewals. Contractors who show up with a real takeoff, a plant schedule, and irrigation notes win these jobs. Contractors who quote "remove grass, add mulch" as one line lose them.

The exact compliance dates for each property type (state and local agencies, then commercial, then HOAs) are set by the statute and refined through implementing guidance, so confirm current deadlines with the property owner's water district or governing agency before you print a proposal that cites a specific date. What does not change is the work itself: demolition, soil prep, irrigation conversion, plant installation, and a maintenance plan that proves the converted area stays converted.

Site measure: what a turf conversion takeoff actually needs

A nonfunctional turf conversion bid lives or dies on the site measure. Walk the property with a wheel or laser measure and break the turf into functional and nonfunctional zones the same way the property manager or agency will eventually have to document it. Functional turf is anything actively used for recreation, sports, or gathering. Nonfunctional turf is the strip along a parking lot, the median, the slope nobody walks on, the HOA entry green that exists only to be mowed.

• Total nonfunctional turf area in SF, broken out by zone or bed
• Existing irrigation type per zone (spray, rotor, drip, none)
• Slope and drainage notes, since regrading changes your soil and edging numbers
• Existing edging condition in LF, and whether it stays or gets replaced
• Access points for equipment and material staging

This takeoff becomes the backbone of your plant schedule and your irrigation notes. Skipping it and eyeballing square footage from a windshield survey is how contractors underbid mulch and soil by a full truckload.

Pricing the retrofit: demolition, haul, materials, irrigation adders

Xeriscape conversion pricing has more moving parts than a standard install because you're removing something before you install something. Price each piece separately so your proposal survives value engineering.

• Demolition: sod cutting or sheet mulching the existing turf, priced by SF, plus disposal or haul-off if the property doesn't allow on-site composting of removed sod.
• Material haul: mulch and soil amendments by CY, delivered and spread. Don't forget haul-in access for tight HOA sites where a full-size dump truck can't reach the bed.
• Edging: LF of new steel, aluminum, or paver edging separating beds from remaining turf or hardscape.
• Plant material: priced by plant count and container size or grade (1-gallon vs 5-gallon vs 15-gallon), since a drought-tolerant palette at scale can shift your material cost more than labor.
• Irrigation adders: converting spray heads to drip, adding a smart controller, capping unused zones, and re-piping where the old system was built for turf, not beds.

Bundle these as line items, not a lump sum. Public agencies and HOA boards reviewing multiple bids want to see where the money goes, and a broken-out proposal reads as more credible than a flat number.

Irrigation retrofit basics: zones, controllers, and distribution

Turf irrigation and bed irrigation are different systems, and most nonfunctional turf conversions fail their first summer because the irrigation didn't get rethought, just capped off and hoped for.

Walk each existing zone and decide whether it needs full replacement, partial conversion, or a controller reprogram. Spray heads built for turf throw water in a pattern that overshoots shrub and groundcover beds and wastes water on hardscape, which is exactly what these turf restrictions are trying to eliminate. Drip line or inline emitter tubing matched to plant spacing gets water to the root zone instead of the leaf canopy, which also cuts disease pressure on the new plantings.

Note per zone on your irrigation notes: valve location, existing GPM if known, proposed emitter type and spacing, and whether the zone needs a separate run time from adjacent zones. Smart or weather-based controllers are worth quoting as an adder, especially for HOA and commercial properties that need to show a water district they're actively managing runtime, not just relying on a timer set once in 2019.

Seasonality: when to actually schedule this work

Timing a turf conversion wrong costs you callbacks. Fall and early spring are the strongest windows in most California climate zones for new plant establishment, since cooler temperatures and (in a normal year) more natural rainfall reduce transplant shock and cut down on establishment watering. Installing drought-tolerant plant material in the middle of a hot, dry summer means your crew is hand-watering new plants daily just to keep them alive, which eats labor hours you didn't price.

Demolition and soil prep have more scheduling flexibility than planting, so a common sequence is: demo and irrigation rough-in during a slower season, then hold plant installation for the next favorable planting window. Build this into your proposal timeline explicitly. A property manager or agency reviewing your bid wants to see that you're not planting 5-gallon sages in August and calling it done.

Maintenance vs install: two different proposals

Design-build proposals without a maintenance component are losing ground in this market, and for good reason. Agencies and HOA boards need to show that a converted landscape stays converted, not just that it looked good on install day. That means your maintenance proposal needs its own scope, separate from the install scope.

A maintenance plan tied to a turf conversion typically covers: establishment watering schedule for the first one to two growing seasons, weed control specific to mulched beds versus turf, irrigation system checks and seasonal adjustments, and plant replacement allowances for the inevitable losses in year one. Quote this as a standalone line or a separate contract, and be specific about what triggers a plant replacement versus what's covered under a standard maintenance visit.

HOA and public agency RFP specifics

HOA boards and public agencies aren't the same client, even though the compliance driver is the same law. HOA boards work off an approved plant list, often maintained by the landscape committee or the HOA's governing documents, and they care about curb appeal and resident complaints as much as compliance. Public agency RFPs care more about documentation: functional versus nonfunctional turf breakdown, projected water use reduction, and a maintenance plan that satisfies whoever the agency reports to on water use.

For HOA work, bring your own drought-tolerant plant recommendations that fit within their existing approved list, or propose additions if the list is outdated. For agency RFPs, structure your proposal so the compliance narrative (existing conditions, proposed conversion, projected outcome) is easy to lift straight into their reporting paperwork. Contractors who make an agency's compliance reporting easier get repeat business.

Crew day planning for a xeriscape conversion

Estimate crew days by phase, not as one lump number, because each phase has a different crew size and skill mix.

• Demo and haul: sod cutting, disposal, and site prep, usually your largest crew for the shortest duration.
• Irrigation rough-in: a smaller specialized crew converting heads to drip, running new lateral lines, and setting or reprogramming the controller.
• Soil and mulch: amendment spreading and CY delivery coordination, often overlapping with irrigation work if access allows.
• Planting: crew size scales with plant count and container size, and larger 15-gallon material takes longer per plant than flats of groundcover.
• Edging and finish grading: usually a smaller crew closing out the site before final walkthrough.

Running this by phase instead of a single crew day total also makes it easier to sequence multiple properties in the same week, which matters if you're chasing several HOA conversions ahead of an annual contract renewal deadline. Contractors managing several of these bids at once are increasingly using a system like LandWright to keep the site measure, plant schedule, and irrigation notes attached to each job so nothing gets left off the proposal when a board asks for revisions.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as nonfunctional turf under California's restrictions?

Nonfunctional turf generally means grass that isn't used for active recreation, sports, or regular gathering, things like median strips, parking lot islands, decorative entry lawns, and slopes nobody walks on. Turf used for playgrounds, sports fields, or dog parks is typically treated as functional and isn't the target of these restrictions. When in doubt on a specific parcel, confirm the classification with the property owner or the relevant water authority before finalizing scope.

Should I price demolition and planting as one line item or separate?

Separate them. Demolition, material haul, irrigation, and plant material each have different cost drivers, and boards or agencies reviewing bids want to see where the money goes. A broken-out proposal also protects you if the client wants to phase the work or value-engineer one component without renegotiating the whole job.

What's the best time of year to install drought-tolerant plants in California?

Fall through early spring is generally the strongest window in most California climate zones, since cooler temperatures reduce transplant shock and cut down on establishment watering needs. Mid-summer planting usually means more hand-watering labor and higher plant loss, so build seasonality into your project timeline rather than installing on whatever week the contract gets signed.

Do HOAs need a different plant list than public agencies?

Usually yes. HOAs typically work from an approved plant list in their governing documents, maintained by a landscape committee, while public agencies focus more on documented water savings and compliance reporting. Bring plant recommendations that fit the HOA's existing list, or propose formal additions, rather than assuming any drought-tolerant plant is automatically approved.

How do I estimate irrigation retrofit costs for a turf conversion?

Walk each existing zone and decide whether it needs full replacement, partial drip conversion, or just a controller reprogram. Price by zone using your irrigation notes: valve location, proposed emitter type, and whether a smart controller adder makes sense for that property. Avoid quoting irrigation as a flat percentage of the install cost, since a property with old spray-only zones costs more to convert than one with existing drip infrastructure.