Las Cruces, NM Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Article IV of the Land Development Code sets the city's landscaping standard, and it favors desert-adapted planting rather than mandating a particular look. Sec. 32-266(b) states the style is not prescribed, but indigenous or drought-tolerant plants are recommended, and Sec. 32-266(e)(4) lets an owner count naturalized, undisturbed vegetation toward the required landscaped area credit, exempting that portion from the irrigation-system requirement, as long as the site still reserves 15 percent of its parking area for landscaping. That native-credit exemption has one carve-out: tumbleweed, snakeweed and bursage don't count as naturalized vegetation for the credit.

Sec. 32-277(a) then lists the recommended plant palette by category, more than two dozen tree species including ash, desert willow, honey locust, mesquite, netleaf hackberry and pecan, along with dozens of desert shrubs like sotol, agave, red yucca, Texas sage and prickly pear cactus, plus native groundcovers such as blackfoot daisy. Sec. 32-277(b) separately allows, but does not recommend, a short list of non-native species including oleander, senna and mulberry. New landscaping still needs a site plan and irrigation plan submitted with the building permit application under Sec.

32-271, and it has to be installed before a certificate of occupancy is issued under Sec. 32-272, though the city can grant a written extension of up to nine months. Owners are responsible for keeping landscaping healthy, trimmed and weed-free under Sec. 32-273; letting it die out or grow into a hazard is treated as a nuisance subject to abatement under Chapter 18 per Sec. 32-274. If a lot genuinely lacks room to meet the landscaping percentage, Sec. 32-275 allows a request for a variance at the time of the permit application: the Community Development Director can grant up to a 15 percent administrative variance, anything larger goes to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and a denied variance can be appealed to the city council within 15 days of the mailed decision.