The City of Mesa is offering sweetened deals to local businesses that ditch the grass in favor of more desert-appropriate landscaping. Announced recently on MesaNow.org, the Mesa Grass-to-Xeriscape Program promises commercial entities, from apartment complexes to nonprofits, a dollar incentive that might just grow on them.

Under the city's freshly funded initiative, commercial properties are now eligible for a lush $2 per square foot incentive, capped at $50,000 each year, for uprooting a minimum of 2,500 square feet of water-hungry turf. Beyond the beauty and the eco-benefits, these funds, donated by the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona, have the potential to add up to considerable savings in watering costs. The program's aim, as explained by Mesa Deputy City Manager Marc Heirshberg, is to foster sustainable communities and to empower them to conserve our precious water resources, according to a statement reported by MesaNow.org.

Mesa has also kicked its landscape irrigation equipment incentive up a notch, offering up to $20,000 per property. However, hope-to-be green thumbs should take note: the program’s benefits are reserved for future projects, and with a funding pool as limited as a desert oasis, it's first come, first served.

Homeowners eager to swap out their traditional lawns for a parched landscape can tap into an incentive capped at $1,100. The Mesa website offers a plethora of resources, including a handy Plant Square Footage Calculator, helping property owners select the perfect drought-tolerant flora. To grab these incentives, the plant replacements must eventually cover at least half the converted area, as detailed by the city's guidelines reflected on MesaNow.org.