Richardson, TX Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Richardson does not print watering-day schedules directly in the municipal code text. Instead, Sec. 23-268 adopts the City of Richardson 2024 Water Conservation Plan and 2024 Water Resource Emergency Management Plan by reference, with copies on file with the city secretary. The Water Conservation Plan took effect May 1, 2024; the Emergency Management Plan (which contains the drought-stage restrictions, including any odd/even or day-of-week watering limits) becomes effective only when the city manager formally orders implementation of a stage under Chapter 23, Article V-1. Because the stage-specific schedule lives in that incorporated exhibit rather than in the printed code, this page grounds only in what the ordinance text itself states: that the plans are mandatory once adopted or triggered, and how violations are handled.

Sec. 23-269 makes it unlawful for any person to violate any provision of either plan. Enforcement is tiered: on a first violation, the city sends a warning letter with educational materials on water conservation, including a copy of the relevant provisions, and gives the water user a reasonable time to correct the problem. A second violation lets the city issue a municipal court citation, and a conviction carries a fine of up to $2,000. Separately, Sec. 23-295 in the city's Irrigation Code requires that all irrigation systems be designed, installed, maintained, altered, repaired, serviced and operated in a manner that promotes water conservation as defined in Sec.

23-290, tying irrigation-system upkeep directly to the conservation goals of the adopted plans. Licensed irrigators and irrigation technicians remain responsible for keeping systems compliant with this conservation standard alongside the backflow and permit rules found elsewhere in Article VII.