Fontana, CA Water Use Rules: Turf Replacement Rebates (2026)

Sec. 28-120 gives project applicants a prescriptive shortcut to comply with Fontana's water-efficient landscape article instead of running the full performance calculation, available for any project with 2,500 square feet or less of landscape area or as an alternative for larger residential projects. To use it, an applicant submits a landscape documentation package to the city signed with a statement agreeing to comply with the prescriptive option, incorporates compost at four cubic yards per 1,000 square feet, and meets the turf standard in Sec. 28-120(b)(4): turf is capped at 25 percent of the landscape area in residential projects and is prohibited entirely in non-residential projects.

Turf also cannot be planted on any slope steeper than a one-foot vertical rise for every four feet of horizontal run, and it is barred from parkways under ten feet wide unless the parkway abuts a parking strip used for vehicle entry and exit, in which case any turf there must run on sub-surface irrigation or equivalent technology that produces no overspray or runoff. The same prescriptive path requires climate-adapted plants on 75 percent of the residential planting area (100 percent for non-residential), a three-inch mulch layer, weather-based or soil-moisture-based automatic irrigation controllers with rain sensors, pressure regulators, and a private submeter for non-residential landscape areas of 1,000 square feet or more. A certificate of completion, installation certificate, irrigation schedule and maintenance schedule are due to the property owner at final inspection.