There is a service, I think it's in Los Angeles, that will spray paint your dead lawn green again. You don't have to waste water and you make the housing association happy. I don't remember how much it cost, but you should look into that, OP. If there isn't a service near you, you can always see how they do it and tackle it yourself.

Xeriscaping. Replace your brown grass with a tasteful arrangement of native palmetto, cactus, hardy shrubs, impressive rocks, and smooth sand. It looks great in dry places and takes zero water. Hell, you'll never even have to mow again. You can sell your lawnmower. That's obviously going to be more than $150... but it's a long term solution and you'll eventually save it back on water, especially at (I'm guessing here) California or West Texas prices.

You can get people to paint it green for you! Haha it's a actual thing!

There has to be something you can do to get out of that...

you live in a dictatorship

DO WHAT THE CITY SAYS, KEEP ALL DOCUMENTS FROM THE ASSOCIATION. THE CITY SUPERSEDES THE ASSOCIATION.

Time to go out and buy some spray paint.

Water half your lawn

Don't you love California?

This is technically illegal since they're forcing you to perform an illegal action. Contact a lawyer (or just the police station) and they'll know how to sort it out.