West Jordan, UT Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

Section 13-13-5 of the West Jordan City Code, adopted by Ordinance 21-10 and amended by Ordinance 25-12 in April 2025, sets the city's landscape water efficiency standards for all new construction citywide. Every irrigation valve must serve plant material with similar water needs, drip irrigation or bubblers are mandatory except in lawn/sod/turf zones, and any installed drip system needs a pressure regulator, filter and flush-end assembly. Lawn and planting beds must run on separate valves, and every landscaped area with an irrigation system needs a smart controller that automatically adjusts frequency and duration for weather, with automatic rain delay or rain shut-off built in.

Planting beds need three to four inches of mulch. The ordinance goes further than irrigation hardware: lawn/sod/turf is flatly prohibited in park strips, on paths under eight feet wide, and on slopes steeper than a 25% grade. For single dwelling units, turf is capped at whichever is greater of 250 square feet or 35% of the front yard/side yard landscaped area, with the landscaped-area definition cross-referenced to section 13-2-3. The city separately maintains a drought management plan under Title 9, Chapter 6, which lets the City Council or Mayor declare a drought response level restricting water use citywide, but section 13-13-5 is the standing, non-drought landscaping standard that governs how much lawn and what irrigation equipment a property can install in the first place.