Kent, WA Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

07 KCC sets the general landscape requirements that apply to every zone in the city, covering everything from where required landscaping must be located relative to rights-of-way to how parking lot perimeters must be buffered from residential uses. Subsection (C), Landscape planting requirements, governs the plant material itself: bark mulch, gravel or other nonvegetative material may only supplement planting, not substitute for it; new landscape areas must have the top twelve inches of soil tilled with two inches of composted material incorporated, per the Stormwater Management Manual of Western Washington; and slopes in landscaped areas cannot exceed a three-to-one ratio.

Within that same subsection, paragraph 5 requires landscape plans to include a diversity of native, native-adapted, and drought-tolerant, low-water-use plant species, and to promote native wildlife habitat where feasible, tying species selection directly into the plan review planning services performs before a landscape permit is finalized. Paragraph 6 pairs with this by requiring irrigation systems in a landscaped area to include rain sensors, reinforcing the water-conservation intent behind the native and drought-tolerant planting mandate. 030: once installation is complete, the project manager or business owner must contact planning services for an inspection, and planning services may also inspect at any time after the six-month establishment period described in that section.