Lee County, NC Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Appendix A of the Lee County Unified Development Ordinance defines 'xeriscape' as landscaping with native plants that utilizes the existing environmental conditions to the best advantage, conserving water and protecting the native environment. That definition matters because Appendix B, the county's submittal-requirements appendix, sets out what a landscaping plan must show for a development application, including a general landscaping delineation, botanical and common names for every planted species, and the location and sizes of irrigation facilities adequate to maintain the planting areas. Automatic watering systems are encouraged under B-6, but subsection B-6(5) carves out a specific exception: those irrigation-facility requirements do not apply to landscaped areas using xeriscape plantings.

In practice, a developer who designs a site's required landscaping around native, low-water plant material can skip the irrigation-system submittal and installation obligation that a conventional turf-and-ornamental landscape plan would otherwise trigger under Article 7. The exemption sits alongside the broader landscaping purpose statement in UDO § 7.1, which lists preserving native plants and existing native vegetation among the article's stated goals, but the enforceable allowance is the irrigation exemption in B-6, reviewed by the Community Development Department as part of landscape plan approval before a certificate of occupancy is issued.