Carrollton, TX Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Carrollton sits in Dallas, Denton and Collin counties, and like most DFW suburbs, most of its newer subdivisions are governed by a property owners' association (POA) with its own dedicatory instrument. Texas Property Code Chapter 202, the state's restrictive-covenants law, limits what those covenants can prohibit. Section 202.007(a) bars a POA from including or enforcing a provision that stops an owner from composting yard waste, installing rain barrels or a rainwater harvesting system, running efficient drip irrigation, or using drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf. A provision that violates that list is void under (b).

Artificial and synthetic turf sit outside that protected list. Subsection (c) goes further and gives a POA affirmative authority to restrict the type of turf used by a property owner in the planting of new turf to encourage or require water-conserving turf, authority a board can use to require living grass over plastic turf. Subsection (d)(8) also lets a POA demand a written plan for any drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf installation and review it for aesthetic compatibility with the rest of the subdivision, and (d-1) only bars the POA from being unreasonable about that review; it does not extend the same review right to artificial turf as a protected category.

Section 202.007(e) exempts POAs located in a municipality over 175,000 residents that sits in a county containing another city over one million people, if the POA manages at least 4,000 acres zoned commercial, multifamily or open space. Carrollton's population is about 133,434, below that 175,000 threshold, so no Carrollton POA can claim this carve-out; the full protections and restrictions of Section 202.007 apply to every Carrollton subdivision regardless of which of the three counties it sits in.