Brooklyn Park, MN Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

1011(G) starts from a baseline requirement: every landscaped area on a residential site, including parking area islands, needs an underground automatic irrigation system with a flow meter and moisture sensing devices, unless the City Engineer approves an alternative. Subsection (G)(2) is where the ordinance opens the door to rainwater harvesting, naming rain gardens, closed rain barrels, and greywater systems as acceptable substitutes, provided the alternative still delivers adequate irrigation to the landscaping it serves. Greywater systems that qualify come with their own conditions: the water has to stay on the site where it was generated and be directed into an irrigation or disposal field rather than allowed to pond or run off, which the code treats as a nuisance in its own right.

If greywater is released above ground, it needs at least two inches of mulch, rock, or soil cover, or an equivalent solid shield, and the system has to be designed to keep people and pets from contacting the water and to exclude hazardous residue such as car-parts cleaning fluid or oily rags. Arid landscaping plans are exempt from the irrigation requirement entirely under (G)(3), so a xeriscape design does not need a rain barrel or greywater system to win approval. 02, as a native plant garden designed to reduce stormwater and pollutants reaching streams, lakes, and rivers, tying the landscaping chapter's irrigation alternative to the city's broader stormwater goals.