Placer County, CA Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

There is no single countywide outdoor-watering schedule (for example, fixed watering days) in the Placer County code; specific drought stages and allowed watering days are set by the retail water agency serving your area, most commonly the Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) for unincorporated communities. What the county does regulate is the efficiency of new landscaping. The Placer County Board of Supervisors adopted its own Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (WELO) and updated Landscape Design Guidelines in 2017 to implement California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO). The county WELO applies to projects with a new landscape of 500 square feet or more, or a remodeled/rehabilitated landscape greater than 2,500 square feet, requiring water budgets, efficient irrigation, and limits on high-water turf. Above these thresholds, projects use a prescriptive compliance path (smaller landscapes) or a full Landscape Documentation Package (typically 5,000 square feet and up). Layered on top, California's permanent 'Making Conservation a California Way of Life' framework (AB 1668 and SB 606, 2018) directs the State Water Resources Control Board to set urban water-use efficiency standards; the indoor residential standard stepped to 52.5 gallons per capita per day on January 1, 2025 and drops to 50 gpcd in 2030.