Watsonville, CA Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

Section 6-3.803 of the Watsonville Municipal Code, in Chapter 6-3, City Utilities, turns the compost and mulch provisions of the State Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO) into local requirements. Subsection (a) applies to property owners and their building or landscape designers, including anyone requiring a building or planning permit, plan check, or landscape design review from the City, who are constructing a new single-family, multifamily, public, institutional, or commercial project with a landscape area greater than five hundred (500) square feet, or rehabilitating an existing landscape with a total landscape area greater than two thousand five hundred (2,500) square feet.

Covered projects must submit a landscape design plan with a soil preparation, mulch, and amendments section. For landscape installations, subsection (c)(1)(i) requires compost at a rate of a minimum of four (4) cubic yards per one thousand (1,000) square feet of permeable area to be incorporated to a depth of six (6) inches into the soil. Soils with greater than six (6%) percent organic matter in the top six inches are exempt from adding compost and tilling. Subsection (c)(1)(ii) adds a minimum three (3) inch layer of mulch on all exposed soil surfaces of planting areas, except turf areas, creeping or rooting ground covers, or direct seeding applications where mulch is contraindicated, and up to five (5%) percent of the landscape area can be left without mulch as insect habitat if the landscape design plan designates it. Under subsection (c)(1)(iii), organic mulch made from recycled or post-consumer materials takes precedence over inorganic materials or virgin forest products unless those recycled products are not locally available.

Section 6-3.803(d) provides that if the California Department of Water Resources amends the listed MWELO sections in a more stringent way, the revised state requirements are enforced. Ordinance 1429-22 added the section effective May 26, 2022. The section governs soil amendment in permitted landscape projects and prints no backyard bin size or siting standard. For household food and yard waste, Section 6-10.102(a)(1) lets single-family generators manage organic waste on site or use a community composting site as an alternative to relying on the City's organics service.

These rules apply in the City of Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, California.