9 rules for unincorporated Alpine County, California.
Verified from official government sources
Alpine County has no aesthetic lawn-height limit. Instead, dry grass and flammable vegetation are regulated as a fire hazard: Code Chapter 8.20 declares accumulated fuels a public nuisance and requires defensible-space fuel reduction under California PRC 4291 by a fixed annual deadline.
In the Kirkwood area, Alpine County Code Chapter 12.16 makes it unlawful to trim, prune, top, or damage any tree without a tree permit from the local approving body. Elsewhere in the county there is no general trimming permit, but defensible-space and Forest Practice rules apply.
Removing a tree in the Kirkwood area requires a tree permit, a cash deposit, proof of insurance, and adjacent-owner notice under Code Chapter 12.16. Outside Kirkwood there is no county removal permit; state CAL FIRE Forest Practice rules and timberland-conversion exemptions govern instead.
Alpine County's weed-abatement rule is a wildfire fuels-reduction ordinance. Code Chapter 8.20 declares accumulated fuels a public nuisance and requires PRC 4291 defensible space; it uniquely also reaches adjacent vacant lots in high fire-hazard zones to close the 100-foot defensible-space gap.
Alpine County has no county-specific outdoor-watering ordinance. Statewide State Water Resources Control Board permanent water-waste prohibitions (effective Jan. 1, 2025) control: no hosing pavement, no irrigation runoff, no watering within 48 hours of measurable rain, and nozzle-equipped hoses for car washing.
Alpine County has no ordinance restricting residential rainwater harvesting. California's Rainwater Capture Act broadly allows rooftop rainwater collection, and the state MWELO encourages harvested rainwater as an alternative landscape water supply. Large storage tanks may still need a county building permit.
Alpine County does not mandate native-plant lists for ordinary yards, but in the Scenic Highway Corridor (Code Ch. 18.60) it directs revegetating disturbed and graded areas to blend with natural land cover, and the state MWELO favors climate-appropriate, low-water plants for new landscaping.
Alpine County has no ordinance specifically permitting or banning artificial turf. There is no county synthetic-grass standard; installations are governed by general zoning, grading, and (in scenic corridors) visual-blending rules. State MWELO counts artificial turf as a non-irrigated, non-plant surface.
Alpine County has no rule against backyard composting, which is encouraged. The county's adopted organics ordinance is its SB-1383 Edible Food Waste Recovery chapter (Code Ch. 8.58), which requires commercial edible-food generators to recover surplus food - implementing California's statewide organic-waste-diversion mandate.
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