Thank you for your question.

Hennepin County offers Good Steward Grants and Opportunity Grants that can fund environmental landscaping projects. These include converting turf grass to native plantings or other stormwater-friendly vegetation. These grants typically cover part of the project costs and can support planning, materials, and labor for habitat restoration or natural landscaping. The Good Steward Grants range in amounts of $10,000 to $25,000. The Opportunity grants can provide funds more than $25,000.

See:

https://www.hennepin.us/en/business/conservation/funding-assistance-natural-resources-projects

https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/business/work-with-hennepin-county/environmental-education/grants-environmental-projects.pdf

On a state-wide level, investigate the following:

https://www.naturalshore.com/new-year-fresh-grant-funding-and-ample-opportunities-to-restore-natural-habitats/

https://bwsr.state.mn.us/l2l

With respect to your planning, here are some options for replacing or reducing turf grass areas in HOA common spaces:

1). Use Minnesota-adapted wildflowers, grasses, sedges, and shrubs (e.g., Echinacea, Aster, Little Bluestem). These will provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife, improve soil health, and require less mowing once established.

2). Consider developing an area that would be very low maintenance. Plant such species as clover, self-heal, and fine fescues. These would provide some turf-like aesthetics while feeding pollinators.

3). Perhaps this area would be amenable to convert into a mulched native buffer? With this possibility you would replaces the lawn with natural mulch layers and shrubbery along paths or around borders.

Here is some further information on these and related points:

https://extension.umn.edu/landscape-design/planting-and-maintaining-bee-lawn

https://extension.umn.edu/lawns-and-landscapes/flowers-pollinators

https://www.marthastewart.com/8116129/grass-lawn-alternatives

https://bbbseed.com/grass-alternatives/ - :~:text=Q: What are the grass,light to moderate foot traffic.

https://directnativeplants.com/from-lawn-to-meadow-alternatives-to-turf/?srsltid=AfmBOoqqcZcR_tDct2HcNBncHzgObvEtak5EkCqmvBa8U4qvq7uaLPbM

https://extension.umn.edu/lawns-and-landscapes/landscape-design

https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2019-08/Turf Alternatives-Metro Blooms.pdf

Good luck. Feel free to get back to us if you have any further related questions. Thanks for using our forum.