Irvine, CA Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

' For the multi-family, commercial, industrial and institutional projects the chapter does cover, Section 3-15-2 requires all setback and non-work areas to be landscaped with an approved irrigation system, and hardscape cannot be substituted to satisfy that minimum. Section 3-15-3(A), the chapter's maintenance-requirements provision, then folds synthetic turf into the same upkeep duty as living plant material: all landscape areas utilizing synthetic turf must be cleaned and maintained based on the manufacturer's guidelines, alongside the general duty to keep landscaping healthy, growing, pruned, fertilized, mowed and trimmed, and free of weeds and debris.

A separate cross-reference in the park-plan modification rules treats 'any change in turf from natural to synthetic material' in a public park as a change requiring park-plan review, evidence the City tracks synthetic conversions even where it does not ban them. For an industrial, commercial or institutional parcel, Section 3-15-3(D) puts maintenance of any landscaping between the curb and the property line on the property owner unless an association or district has taken it over. Because single-family detached lots fall outside Chapter 3-15's scope, front-yard synthetic turf on those lots is governed instead by the front-yard maintenance duty found elsewhere in the City's nuisance code and, for any HOA-governed community, by the association's CC&Rs together with state synthetic-turf protections in the Civil Code.