Battle Rages Over Florida Lawn

When Ed Ehlen paid $19,000 to purchase and install artificial turf at his new home in Florida’s upscale Marco Island community, he thought he was doing an environmental service. “We have such a water problem in Southwest Florida,” Ehlen told the

News-Press. And with artificial turf, he said, “you don’t have to water. You don’t have to fertilize.” Not everyone sees it that way, however, and community development director Greg Niles has asked Ehlen to replace it with real grass, complaining that the artificial turf poses environmental problems of its own and fails to comply with the spirit of the city’s landscape code. The debate is set to be resolved by the city council in coming weeks. Meanwhile, Ehlen has painted one side of his home pink, with green and purple polka dots, in protest; paint colors are not constrained by city ordinances. For more on the debate over artificial and natural turf, see

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Vol. 13, No. 4.