Placer County, CA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

The prohibition sits inside § 15.75.020, Submittal requirements, which lists the elements every Landscape Documentation Package must contain for projects covered by Article 15.75: new landscapes of 500 square feet or more and rehabilitated landscapes over 2,500 square feet requiring a permit, plan check, or design review (§ 15.75.010(1)). Under subsection 2(d), Landscape Design Plan, part ii, Plant Materials, item (7) states flatly that the use of invasive and/or noxious plant species 'shall not be used,' citing the California Invasive Plant Council's list and the county's own Landscape Design Guidelines as the reference lists.

Section 15.75.160 defines 'invasive plant species' as species not historically found in California that spread outside cultivated areas and can damage environmental or economic resources, noting such species may separately be regulated by county agricultural agencies as noxious species, with lists maintained at the California Invasive Plant Inventory and the USDA invasive and noxious weeds database. Because this ban lives inside the submittal and design-plan requirements, it is enforced at the plan-check stage: a landscape design plan that specifies a listed invasive or noxious species does not meet the requirements of § 15.75.020 and is not approvable as submitted.

The same section separately bars high water use plants (plant factor 0.7 to 1.0) from street medians and requires fire-prone plant materials to be avoided in fire hazard areas per Public Resources Code § 4291. Article 15.75, and therefore this prohibition, does not apply to any real property within the Placer County Tahoe Basin Area Plan boundary under § 15.75.010(2)(e); Tahoe Basin landscaping instead answers to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's separate plant lists.