Lyon County, NV Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Lyon County's Chapter 402 Landscape Standards (Lyon County Code sections 15.402.01 through 15.402.04) apply to all landscaping, buffering, and screening required under Title 15's development code in unincorporated Lyon County, Nevada. Section 15.402.03(A) directs developments to incorporate landscape elements such as living plant material, decorative pavement, screening walls, and planters, and requires that every unimproved earth area be planted, restored, or otherwise protected from erosion. The same subsection strongly encourages low impact development techniques, including native plants, on-site stormwater retention, drip irrigation, and pervious paving, though the code stops short of mandating them.

Subsection D goes further on plant selection: materials must be adaptable to local conditions, and naturalized schemes using native or low water-consumptive drought-tolerant plants with a high desert theme are strongly encouraged, while lawn areas must be kept to a minimum. Subsection G requires a landscape plan showing plant materials, sizes, quantities, and locations, along with an irrigation plan; both the plants and the irrigation system must be installed before Community Development's Director will issue a Certificate of Occupancy. Subsection C places ongoing maintenance on the property owner or leaseholder, including replacing dead or unhealthy plants, and states that violations of the maintenance duty are subject to the penalties in Chapter 15.15 of Title 15, the county's development code enforcement chapter.

Because native and drought-tolerant planting is framed as encouragement rather than a numeric requirement, a project can satisfy the chapter with conventional plant material as long as the erosion, maintenance, and landscape plan requirements are met.