Alpine County, CA Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Alpine County has no general ordinance requiring homeowners to plant native species in a typical residential yard. The closest county provisions are in the Scenic Highway Corridor Development Requirements (Code Ch. 18.60, Ord. 658, 2004), which apply to areas visible from highways designated as scenic corridors in the General Plan. Section 18.60.040's design guidelines encourage using existing vegetation and natural topography to screen structures, installing landscaping that blends with the natural land cover, and re-grading and re-vegetating graded areas, cut-and-fill slopes, and other disturbed areas to blend with the natural topography and vegetation. Importantly, the chapter states these particular design guidelines are 'for informational purposes only' and that the county shall not apply them as mandatory requirements - so the revegetation language is strongly encouraged guidance, not an enforceable native-planting mandate (the prohibited uses in 18.60.030, by contrast, are enforceable). On a statewide level, the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO) steers new and renovated landscapes toward climate-adapted, low-water-use plants and limits high-water-use species, which in Alpine County's Sierra environment generally means native and drought-tolerant plantings. Native, fire-resistant landscaping near homes also dovetails with the defensible-space goals of Code Chapter 8.20.