Midland, TX Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

" Subsection (b) makes any covenant that violates that protection void outright. The statute preempts HOA rules across every Midland subdivision with a POA, since the City's own landscape ordinance, Chapter 11-9, does not regulate residential rainwater harvesting at all; it applies only to new or expanded non-residential development. Where Chapter 11-9 does apply, though, it treats rainwater harvesting as the single most rewarded item in its landscape point system: § 11-9-4 defines an "approved rainwater harvesting system" as worth ten points, more than any other listed feature, toward the 20-point minimum score a commercial landscape plan must reach, and § 11-9-9 defines rainwater harvesting as a designed system that collects rainfall or gray water into engineered cisterns for landscape irrigation.

Under the state statute's own carve-outs, an association can still decline to allow a rain barrel on association-owned or commonly owned property, or between the front of the home and the street, and may regulate the size, type, shielding, and color of a visible unit, so long as the restriction does not prohibit economical installation where reasonably sufficient space exists.