Yuma, AZ Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

03(3), the groundcover provision of the Landscape Design Standards, recognizes two categories of required groundcover: vegetative and inert. Vegetative groundcover covers living plants, including grass and turf, kept generally under 18 inches, and it is optional citywide; a project can substitute one-gallon container groundcover plants for required shrubs at a rate of three groundcover plants per shrub instead. Inert groundcover is the category that governs artificial turf. The code defines inert groundcover as landscape rock such as gravel, decomposed granite, or crushed rock of at least one-quarter inch screened size, explicitly excludes unscreened road base as an acceptable material, and then states that other materials, such as artificial turf, are also approved.

Every non-turf area within a required landscape area must be top-dressed with inert groundcover such as landscape rock or an approved alternative, and that dressing must be supplemented and replaced as it wears. A separate color rule applies to rock: outside retention basins, if landscape rock is the native Yuma Grey color, at least 20% of the total required landscape area must use rip rap of a different color, sized three to eight inches, plus one boulder of a non-Yuma-Grey color per 500 square feet, minimum 18 inches.

Colored gravel is mandatory in the Auto Center, Aesthetic, and Historic District Overlay zones. 04(A) as well as to perimeter, parking, and other landscape categories citywide.