Caldwell, ID Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Caldwell limits artificial turf in the areas regulated by its Landscaping Ordinance. Caldwell City Code Section 10-07-04 (Landscape Criteria and Installation Practices), within Chapter 10, Article 7, provides that the use of artificial plants or carpeting cannot substitute for landscape plant material, and that the primary and dominant landscape material shall be grass. The same section also caps non-living ground-cover materials such as bark, wood chips, stone, rock, gravel, and lava rock at twenty-five percent (25%) maximum coverage of the landscaped area. Taken together, these rules mean that in landscaping required as part of an approved development or commercial site plan, synthetic turf cannot be counted toward the required living-plant landscaping, and the bulk of the required area must be living vegetation rather than inert or artificial surfaces. The ordinance's plant-material standards (ANSI Z60.1) reinforce that required landscaping is intended to be live nursery stock. For an established single-family yard not tied to a current landscape-plan condition, the city's main concern is the nuisance code rather than the artificial-turf substitution rule, so homeowners installing artificial turf in a private back yard generally have more latitude, provided the installation is maintained and does not create drainage or nuisance problems.