Santa Rosa, CA Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

Santa Rosa's Water Efficient Landscape ordinance, Chapter 14-30, applies to new and rehabilitated commercial, industrial, institutional, park and greenbelt, multi-family, and qualifying single-family landscaping whenever the project needs a building or grading permit, plan check, design review, or utilities certificate, per Section 14-30.020. Registered historic landscapes, ecological restoration projects without a permanent irrigation system, and public botanical gardens and arboretums are exempt.

Within the required landscape design plan, Section 14-30.040(A) lists sixteen items applicants must show, from hydrozone boundaries and plant water-use classifications down to mulch depth and soil amendments. Item 13 speaks directly to stormwater: applicants must "identify location, installation details, and size of any storm water best management practices, including rainwater harvesting or catchment technologies that will provide storm water retention, infiltration, and/or treatment," and the ordinance sends applicants to "the City or North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board for information and approval requirements" for those systems.

Compliance is checked in three steps under Section 14-30.060: at final design review, where the landscape design plan (including any catchment system shown under item 13) is submitted; at building permit or plan check, where staff confirm the irrigation plan matches; and at completion, where an irrigation audit and certificate of completion are required before the City signs off. Section 14-30.070 lets the Director of Water accept an equivalent design under the State's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance instead of the local design and irrigation sections if it demonstrably addresses the project's design requirements just as well.