Commerce City, CO Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 21-7511 requires every landscaping plan reviewed in Commerce City to build in water conservation materials and techniques, and it spells out what xeriscaping is not: the code bars counting artificial turf or plants, mulched or gravel beds without live plant material, paving beyond what walkways, plazas or parking lots need, bare ground, or weed-covered surfaces as compliant xeric landscaping. The section lists seven smart-water techniques a plan should use, including grouping plants by water need on shared irrigation zones, limiting high-water turf to high-use areas, choosing low-water plants and turf, using efficient irrigation systems, improving soil, using mulch, and keeping up regular maintenance.

Sec. 21-7512 then requires permanent, automatic irrigation for all plant material citywide, with one exception: landscaping certified as xeric doesn't need permanent irrigation once established, though the plan still has to include temporary irrigation to get the xeric plants established in the first place. Where a landscape plan is at least 51 percent xeric material, the code adds three retrofit rules: existing automatic irrigation zones must be adjusted to properly water the remaining turf and efficiently irrigate the new xeric areas, drip irrigation is preferred over overhead spray, and any overhead spray heads used must be high-efficiency nozzles, though hand watering and semi-automatic irrigation are both allowed, and every tree still needs its own dedicated irrigation line.

These rules apply on top of the plant-quantity and turf-coverage standards in Tables VII-13 and VII-14, which already cap turf at half of any project's landscape area.