Clovis, CA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Chapter 9.28 (Landscaping Standards) sets maintenance duties for landscaping installed under an approved site plan. Section 9.28.090(A) defines 'maintenance' to include regular watering, mowing, pruning, fertilizing, clearing of debris and weeds, pest and disease monitoring, and timely replacement of dead plants. Section 9.28.090(B) requires the landowner to record a perpetual maintenance covenant with the City Engineer before a certificate of occupancy issues, backed by the City's authority to file a lien against the property if maintenance lapses.

Subsection C applies specifically to 'nonresidential, multifamily and planned developments' and lists nine maintenance standards; the fifth states plainly, 'Invasive species shall be eradicated.' The same subsection requires planting areas to stay in 'a relatively weed-free condition and clear of undergrowth which may cause undue fire hazards,' bars pruning that departs from International Society of Arboriculture and American National Standards Institute standards, and requires dead, dying, and diseased vegetation to be replaced. Detached single-family lots are not swept into subsection C's nine-point maintenance list.

Section 6.5.502, the water-efficient landscape ordinance's definitions section, describes an 'invasive plant species' as one 'not historically found in California that spread outside cultivated areas and can damage environmental or economic resources,' and points landowners to the California Invasive Plant Inventory and the USDA invasive and noxious weeds database rather than codifying its own list. Clovis relies on those outside inventories to identify which species subsection C's eradication duty reaches.