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

Santa Barbara County does not publish a county-wide cosmetic lawn-height limit for occupied residential yards. Instead, grass and weed height is regulated for fire safety. The County Fire Department's Defensible Space Development Standard #6, Section 3.4.1, applies to all parcels in the Fire District and states that owners must "Remove all weeds from property or mow to a height of less than four (4) inches." Along roadways and driveways (the Zone 3 "Access Zone"), Section 8.4 requires flammable vegetation to be trimmed to a maximum height of four inches, or removed entirely, for at least ten feet on each side of the road. These requirements implement Chapter 15 of the County Code (Fire Prevention, Ordinance No. 5170 adopting the 2022 California Fire Code) and California Public Resources Code Section 4291. The Chapter 15 amendment (Fire Code Section 4911) authorizes the fire chief to declare a parcel a fire hazard and order combustible vegetation cut or removed. Cultivated ground cover such as green grass, ivy or succulents that does not form a means of readily transmitting fire is expressly exempt. So the four-inch standard is a wildfire-fuel rule, not a tidiness rule, and applies countywide in the unincorporated Fire District.