Downey, CA Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Civil Code Section 4735(a) makes void and unenforceable any provision of an HOA's governing documents, architectural guidelines, or landscaping policies that prohibits, or has the effect of prohibiting, the use of artificial turf or any other synthetic surface that resembles grass, or the use of low water-using plants as a group or as a turf replacement. The same subsection voids any HOA rule that restricts compliance with a water-efficient landscape ordinance adopted under Government Code Section 65595(c) or with a water-use regulation adopted under Water Code Section 353 or 375.

Subsection (b) preserves an association's ability to apply its own landscaping rules, but only to the extent those rules fully conform with subsection (a), meaning an HOA can still set reasonable appearance or installation standards for turf but cannot use them to effectively ban it. Subsections (c) through (e) add drought protections: an association cannot fine or assess an owner for reducing or eliminating lawn watering while the Governor has declared a drought state of emergency under Government Code Section 8558(b) or a local government has declared a local drought emergency under Section 8558(c), unless the owner already receives recycled water from a retail supplier and fails to use it for irrigation.

An owner who installs water-efficient landscaping in response to a declared drought emergency is not required to reverse or remove it once the emergency ends. The statute was amended by Stats. 5 (AB 786), effective October 11, 2015, and it overrides any conflicting HOA covenant regardless of when the covenant was recorded.