Clovis, CA Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Section 6.5.503, the landscape documentation package requirement, sits inside Article 5 of Chapter 6.5 (Water Efficient Landscape Requirements), adopted by Ordinance 10-04 (effective April 14, 2010) and amended by Ordinance 15-28 (effective January 13, 2016). Section 6.5.501 triggers the article for any new construction project with an aggregated landscape area of 500 square feet or more that needs a building or landscape permit, plan check, or design review, and for any rehabilitated landscape project of 2,500 square feet or more under the same permit triggers. Individual single-family lots of any size, and any project at or under 2,500 square feet, may instead follow the prescriptive measures in Section 6.5.515.

Within the landscape design plan element of the documentation package, Section 6.5.503(b)(4)(ii) requires the applicant's plant selection to weigh protection and preservation of native species and natural vegetation, and to prioritize local native plants among water-conserving choices. The same subsection ties plant choice to climate zone tolerance, disease and pest resistance, mature plant size, root behavior near infrastructure, and selection from City-recommended plant lists. The completed plan must carry a signed statement that the applicant complied with the Water Efficient Landscape Requirements Ordinance, and the package goes to the City for review and approval before a building or encroachment permit issues.

Because compliance is folded into the documentation package rather than a stand-alone native-plant law, homeowners installing fewer than 2,500 square feet of new landscaping face no permit-stage plant-list review at all, though the separate Section 9.28.090 duty to eradicate invasive species from maintained landscaping still applies once plants are in the ground.