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

There is no Mariposa County ordinance setting a maximum lawn or grass height as a tidiness standard. The County is rural, entirely unincorporated, and lies wholly within a State Responsibility Area (SRA) for wildfire, so the controlling rule on tall, dried grass is fire-driven rather than aesthetic. Under California Public Resources Code Section 4291, owners of buildings in SRA land must maintain defensible space for 100 feet (or to the property line) around each structure, which includes mowing or removing dead and dying grass and other flammable vegetation. CAL FIRE and the Mariposa County Fire Department administer and inspect this requirement; the Mariposa County Fire Safe Council assists residents with brush clearing and chipping to comply. The County's General Plan Conservation and Open Space Element (Policy 11-2a, Implementation Measure 11-2a(1)) further encourages drought-tolerant and low-water landscaping and retention of native plant material, but does not impose a numeric grass-height limit. Residents bordering county-maintained roads are also subject to the Public Works roadside vegetation control program. For an enforceable height number, defer to the seasonal defensible-space standards published by CAL FIRE rather than any county lawn-care code, which does not exist here.