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In order to buy that home you signed a contract saying you would maintain your lawn. If you don't want to water there are other alternatives.

In my mind, a "maintained" lawn is brown for much of the summer, comparably to how it's covered in snow for most of the winter.

Federal, State or local laws can avoid that problem. Like the law that prohibits HOA's from preventing you from installing a TV antenna.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule

well then why did you move in there, lol

Well the lawn rule was probably a non-issue because it was cheap/easy/morally justifiable enough to comply with with at the time and appeared it would be for the foreseeable future.

You can't just sign a contract voluntarily and expect that some line items you can just ignore. That's your own fault at that point.