Kirkland, WA Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

90, Calculating Lot Coverage. 90(2)(g). The provision does not set a maximum turf area or ban turf outright; instead it conditions the installation on not conflicting with the retention, protection and maintenance of regulated vegetation elsewhere in the code, specifically trees regulated under Chapter 95 KZC, protected natural areas under Chapter 70 KZC, critical areas and their buffers under Chapter 90 KZC, and shoreline riparian areas under Chapter 83 KZC. In practice this means a homeowner cannot remove a regulated tree's root zone or fill a wetland buffer to install turf without separately complying with those chapters' permit and mitigation requirements.

Stormwater rules layer on top: the City's Stormwater Management Manual guidance for new development lists artificial turf among pollutant-generating surfaces it discourages, which applicants must account for at the site design stage even though turf remains a recognized exempt surface for lot coverage purposes. Because artificial turf is treated as an exemption within the lot coverage chapter rather than its own permitted use, there is no standalone artificial-turf permit; any installation must instead be reviewed against the tree, critical-area and stormwater chapters that already apply to the property.