Porterville, CA Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Article 501's landscaping and irrigation standards, section 501.10(E), 'Drought Tolerant/Native Vegetation,' apply to every parcel developed under a Porterville hillside development permit. Subsection 1 requires landscape plans to use native and/or drought tolerant plant materials appropriate to the site's location and soil type, as confirmed by a standard agricultural soils suitability test, and states that preferred landscaping materials shall consist of native plants over any substitute. The same subsection folds in the city's separate water efficient landscape ordinance, cross-referencing Article 303, 'Landscaping,' of the same chapter, so a hillside project has to satisfy both the native-plant preference and the citywide water efficient design standards in one landscape plan submittal.

Subsection 2 adds a protection rule for existing vegetation: native vegetation outside the graded impact area must be preserved and protected from construction damage, and oak trees specifically get a preservation zone extending from the drip line out to an additional ten feet; any project encroachment inside that ten-foot buffer is treated as damage to the tree. These requirements sit alongside the article's broader slope-planting rules, including erosion-control planting ratios of one shrub per sixteen square feet and one tree per four hundred square feet of graded slope, and its automatic-irrigation mandate for all cut and fill slopes.

Landscape plans are reviewed as part of the hillside development permit application processed by the Community Development Department before grading or building permits are issued, and the standards apply only within the mapped Hillside Zone (HZ) Overlay District.