Lake Havasu City, AZ Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Chapter 13.16 of the Lake Havasu City Code, the subdivision design standards, folds landscaping into its Water Conservation section, § 13.16.090. Subsection A discourages ornamental water features such as fountains, streams, ponds and other water displays on single-family and two-family residential lots and bars them outright on multiple-family, commercial, industrial and mixed-use properties. Subsection B requires vegetative ground cover to be reestablished on any land disturbed during development, tying that requirement to the project's NPDES stormwater discharge permit and SWPPP erosion-control plan. Subsection C then addresses native and drought-tolerant planting directly: xeriscape landscaping materials and methods 'shall be encouraged,' language that pushes subdividers toward desert-adapted plants without making any specific species or percentage mandatory.

Subsection D closes the loop by requiring that whatever landscaping materials and irrigation practices are ultimately chosen comply with the city's Water Conservation Plan and its companion Water Conservation Plant Material List, documents maintained outside the code but incorporated into it by reference. Development Services reviews subdivision landscaping plans against these standards during plat and site plan approval; there is no separate native-plant rebate or credit printed in this section, and no minimum percentage of xeriscape coverage is specified. The rule sits in the subdivision title, so it binds new development and re-platting rather than reaching backward to landscaping on lots platted before the section existed.