Chesapeake, VA Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 78-59(5) is the 'Waste of water' clause of the city's water conservation ordinance, and it is the only provision in Chesapeake's code that touches lawn irrigation. It bars anyone from permitting water to run from a hydrant, meter, fixture, hose, or sprinkler system, or any other device, without taking the measures necessary to prevent waste of the public water supply. That is a conduct-based standard, not a schedule: the code sets no specific watering days, no odd/even address rotation, and no time-of-day window for irrigation, so property owners running sprinkler systems are free to water whenever they choose as long as the system is not simply left to run water to waste.

The waste-of-water clause sits inside the same section as Chesapeake's other conservation rules, including low-flow public lavatory fixtures and recycling requirements for continuous-flow equipment and car washes, all administered by the department of public utilities under the same enforcement and penalty subsection. That department, or the state Uniform Statewide Building Code where it otherwise controls, is the enforcing authority for the sprinkler and hose waste ban as well.