By Tom Cowie
A real battle over fake grass has emerged on western suburbs soil.
West Footscray resident Fadh Yusof is fighting an order from Maribyrnong City Council to tear up a patch of artificial grass in his front yard and replace it with real lawn.
Fadh Yusof is fighting an order from the council to rip up his fake grass.Credit: Jason South
Yusof, 36, said the synthetic lawn was professionally installed in April last year at a cost of around $5000 after he settled on a townhouse that he purchased soon after it was built in 2022.
The developers had laid natural turf, Yusof said. However, he didn’t think it was in good condition and decided to remove it because he wanted an option that didn’t need regular mowing or upkeep but still looked nice.
“I live a busy lifestyle – the grass was dying,” the doctor said. “I feel it’s going to be a bit more stylish looking for the house with the low maintenance. I can do medical procedures but I’m not much of a handyman.”
Yusof was unaware he had breached any regulations until he received a remedial letter in February this year from a Maribyrnong City Council planning enforcement officer demanding that he replace the plastic lawn.
The council said Yusof had fallen foul of the planning permit issued for the property in 2020, which included a landscape plan that specified the area must be covered with “lawn areas”.
Yusof was given a little over a month to carry out the necessary works, but he has challenged the decision in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, arguing that he should be allowed to keep the artificial grass.
He said he was not given a copy of the planning permit and landscape plan as part of the section 32 that discloses information about a property at sale.
“How can I maintain a plan that I didn’t know the details of?” he said.
“I can understand if I did it on the nature strip, because that is council land. But it’s not mentioned anywhere that artificial grass is not allowed. The council doesn’t have any policy, any written policy that forbids the homeowner to install it.”
Among the arguments put forward by Yusof was that the word “lawn” in the landscape plan was broad enough to include artificial turf as it did not specify the grass must be natural.
In its submission to VCAT, the council rejected this reasoning, citing a dictionary definition that lawn is “a stretch of grass-covered land, especially one closely mowed, as near a house, etc.”
The council also wrote a letter to Yusof’s lawyer saying it was committed to sustainable design and did not support synthetic grass as it comes with a “big environmental price tag”.
Critics of fake grass say it contributes to the urban heat island effect, harms biodiversity and can leach microplastics into waterways.
But Yusof said the new generation of synthetic grass was better for the environment as it doesn’t need watering or any fertilisers or pesticides.
“During heavy rain everything is still being absorbed properly because of the way the grass was installed,” he said.
In his submission to VCAT, Yusof also argued that his actions could be considered gardening, which is included in the Maribyrnong planning scheme as work that doesn’t need a permit.
“It’s a small area within my own property,” he said. “I was very happy with the outcome, because I don’t have to worry about mowing the lawn every month.”
Council told VCAT that it had been monitoring the site for a year after a resident complained about a lack of landscaping on the property.
The artificial grass was identified in June last year, but the enforcement notice was not issued for another eight months due to staffing issues.
VCAT struck out Yusof’s appeal because it was filed too late after the remedial letter was sent. The tribunal did not rule on the merits of his argument about the grass.
Yusof plans to file another application for review within the correct timeframe when council seeks an enforcement order forcing him to replace his lawn.
“I respect the decision, but I’m not going to give up,” he said.
Maribyrnong CEO Celia Haddock said several pieces of council regulation – including its urban forest and climate emergency strategies – stipulated that artificial grass was not permitted in publicly visible areas of a development.
“It is derived from petrochemicals, increases the urban heat island in the warmer months, and lacks the biodiversity requirements of real planting,” she said.
Haddock said Yusof could seek an amendment to the permit for an alternative landscape arrangement, such as a drought tolerant native and indigenous plantings, rather than lawn.
Get to the heart of what’s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.