Los Banos, CA Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Title 9, Chapter 6 of the Municipal Code, adopted by Ordinance 1156 in 2017, applies to new development landscapes of 500 square feet or more and rehabilitated landscapes of 2,500 square feet or more that need a building, landscape, or design-review permit. 06 lists the design criteria a landscape architect or contractor must build the plan around. 45 for non-residential projects, and landscape area. To stay under that ceiling the section lists several accepted methods, including protecting and preserving native species and natural vegetation, and selecting water-conserving plant, tree and turf species, especially local native plants, alongside picking species suited to local climate, disease and pest resistance and drawing from the City's approved regional plant lists.

A project applicant satisfies the water budget with imported low-water ornamentals just as easily as with natives; the ordinance treats native selection as one compliance path among several, not a mandate. The Landscape Documentation Package submitted with a permit application must show the water budget math and identify which methods were used. Common interest developments, such as HOAs, are separately barred from prohibiting low-water plants as a group in their architectural guidelines. The chapter is enforced by the Public Works Department at the certificate-of-completion stage, when the applicant must certify compliance and, for larger installations, submit an irrigation audit.