Orem, UT Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Where the zoning code requires a landscaped area, at least half of it must normally carry living plants, but City Code 22-14-13 lets the rest be finished with bark chips, decorative rock, ornamental features, or artificial and synthetic turf, provided the turf checks every box the section lists: it must be a soft polyethylene green synthetic fiber at least one and a half inches long that resembles real grass, be UV-protected, treated, and tufted onto a porous backing, carry an infill of a natural material such as sand, be permanently affixed to the ground for a stable, weighted surface, sit over a landscaping fabric that blocks weeds, and rest on a base designed, compacted, and graded for positive drainage.

Meeting all eight conditions still is not enough everywhere: the code carves out one absolute no-turf zone, the landscaped buffer strip between the back of curb and a required sidewalk along a public street, where only living landscaping or the other listed non-living materials may be used. Elsewhere on a residential, commercial, or multi-family lot, turf installed to this standard counts toward the fifty percent (or forty-five percent, where extra street trees are planted) minimum living-and-approved-cover requirement for the parcel's contiguous landscaped area.