Woodland, CA Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Woodland's General Landscaping Requirements treat turf, defined in Section 17.64.040(H)(14) as a ground cover surface of mowed grass, as a limited-use material even before synthetic turf enters the picture. No more than 25% of any required landscaped area may be turf, turf cannot be installed on slopes greater than 25%, and it is prohibited in any planting strip narrower than 10 feet; whatever turf is planted must be a heat-tolerant, lowest-water-use species. Subsection H.14.e then opens the door to an alternative: synthetic turf material may be used in place of any proposed turf area, so a project can substitute artificial surfacing for the mowed-grass turf it would otherwise plant.

The only numeric condition the code attaches to that substitution is spacing from trees; synthetic material must be located a minimum of six feet from any tree, a buffer aimed at protecting root zones and canopy drip lines from the heat and impermeability of artificial surfacing. Because Section 17.64.040(H)(14)(e) is written as a substitution for turf rather than a freestanding landscape material, synthetic turf placed under this provision still counts toward the 25% turf cap and the other turf-area rules in subsection H.14, and it does not reduce a project's separate obligation to meet the 75% native/climate-adapted planting floor in subsection H.4.a for the remaining, non-turf portion of the landscape.