San Diego County, CA Landscaping Rules: Grass Height Limits (2026)

There is no county-wide ordinance setting a specific lawn-height limit (such as a maximum number of inches) for unincorporated San Diego County purely on aesthetic grounds. Instead, overgrown and dead vegetation is regulated as a fire and public-nuisance issue. The County's Combustible Vegetation and Other Flammable Materials Ordinance (County Code sections 68.401 through 68.406) declares that combustible vegetation, dead, dying or diseased trees, green waste, rubbish, and other flammable materials allowed to grow or accumulate on a parcel may constitute a public nuisance subject to abatement by the Fire Warden. In wildland-urban-interface areas, the County's defensible-space requirements (County Consolidated Fire Code section 96.1.4907) require clearing dead and dying grasses, weeds, and plants and reducing combustible vegetation within 100 feet of any improvement. Property owners in fire districts should follow that district's annual weed-abatement notice. Routine green, irrigated turf at a normal height is not itself a violation; the concern is dead, dry, or overgrown grass that increases fire risk. Because thresholds and exact grass-cutting heights are set by individual fire protection districts and the defensible-space program rather than a single county height number, owners should confirm the standard with their local fire agency.