Santa Rosa, CA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Santa Rosa City Code Section 14-30.040(B)(2)(g) states plainly that invasive plants listed by the California Invasive Plant Council are prohibited from the landscape design plan required for covered projects. That plan requirement, adopted by Ordinance No. 3925 in 2010 and amended by Ordinance No. 4051 in 2015, reaches commercial, industrial, institutional, park and greenbelt, multi-family, and single-family residential landscaping wherever the City issues a building or grading permit, plan check, design review approval or utilities certificate for new or rehabilitated landscaping under Section 14-30.020. The design plan itself must carry a signed statement certifying compliance with the ordinance's criteria under Section 14-30.040(A)(15)-(16), and the plan is checked at Step 1 final design review under the documentation rules of Section 14-30.060 before a building permit can move to Step 2 plan check.

The Director of Water may approve design alternatives that equally reduce water consumption in place of specific requirements under Section 14-30.070, and may accept the State of California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance procedures instead of Section 14-30.040 where that better addresses a project's design. Registered historical landscapes, ecological restoration projects without permanent irrigation systems, and existing botanical garden or arboretum plant collections open to the public are exempt from the whole chapter, including the invasive-plant bar, under Section 14-30.020(B).