Watsonville, CA Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

The text quoted here sits in Chapter 5-45, the City of Watsonville's abandoned residential property program. It applies to properties subject to registration under Section 5-45.04, not to every yard in the city. A property enters the program when a judgment creditor or beneficiary records a writ of sale or notice of trustee sale with the Santa Cruz County Recorder's Office and the property is vacant or shows evidence of vacancy. The creditor or beneficiary must register the property with the City within ten days, and an annual registration fee accompanies the form. The registration covers the fiscal year from July 1st to June 30th, later fees are due July 1st and must arrive no later than July 31st, and fees are not prorated. The fee amount is set by City Council resolution under Section 5-45.09.

Section 5-45.05(c) requires visible front and side yards to be landscaped and maintained to the neighborhood standard at the time registration was required. Its definition of landscape lists grass, ground covers, bushes, shrubs, hedges or similar plantings, decorative rock or bark, and artificial turf/sod designed specifically for residential installation. The definition excludes weeds, gravel, broken concrete, asphalt, decomposed granite, plastic sheeting, mulch, indoor-outdoor carpet or any similar material. Maintenance means regular watering, irrigation, cutting, pruning and mowing of required landscape and removal of all trimmings.

The same section also requires the property to be kept free of weeds, dry brush, dead vegetation, trash, junk and debris, and free of graffiti. Section 5-45.06 adds a local property manager who inspects weekly and must restore compliance within seventy-two hours of notice. Unregistered abandoned properties are, at a minimum, subject to subsections (a) and (b) of Section 5-45.05.