Thousand Oaks, CA HOA Rules: CC&R Enforcement (2026)

The limit on HOA authority is written into the same Article 11 water conservation ordinance that sets Thousand Oaks' irrigation rules (Ord. 1705-NS, effective November 25, 2022). Sec. 1104(m) states that HOAs 'shall not enforce architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies' that either forbid replacing existing turf with low water-using plants, or that prohibit, or have the effect of prohibiting, compliance with the City's water-efficient landscaping requirements found throughout Article 11, including the watering-hour, watering-day and non-functional turf standards in Sec. 1104. That means a subdivision's CC&Rs or design-review conditions cannot require a resident to keep a thirsty lawn, deny approval for climate-appropriate plants (defined in Sec.

1101(c) as native and regionally-adapted species), or otherwise stand in the way of a homeowner bringing landscaping into compliance with the City's conservation measures. The provision gives the HOA no separate enforcement or appeal process of its own; it operates as a direct override written into the City's code, meaning the water-efficient landscaping requirement controls over a conflicting HOA rule regardless of when the CC&Rs were recorded. It sits alongside, but is legally distinct from, the State's own artificial-turf and drought-tolerant landscaping protections for HOAs in Civil Code Section 4735: the City ordinance addresses conflicts with Thousand Oaks' own water conservation code specifically, while the state statute addresses HOA turf and landscape-material restrictions more broadly.