Lynnwood, WA Water Use Rules: Turf Replacement Rebates (2026)

LMC 8.40.0220(J), Xeriscaping, applies to landscape plans submitted under Title 8. The section defines xeriscape as combining sound horticultural, landscaping and efficient water-using principles into an attractive, low maintenance, low water landscape, and lists four governing principles: basing design on low water use or drought-tolerant plants; amending soil with manure, compost or other organic material; minimizing high water use grass areas to cut lawn maintenance; and preferring drip irrigation, watering only between midnight and 6:00 a.m. to reduce evaporation. Subsection (J)(4) sets the numeric limit: low water use turf varieties must be used, and high water use turf is capped at no more than 25 percent of the landscaped area, with the rest planted in low water or drought-resistant turf, groundcover, native grasses, shrubs or trees.

Later subsections require plants suited to the site's climate, soils and topography (J.5), grouping of similar-water-use plants into hydrozones (J.7), and allow up to six inches of mulch around young plants while establishing (J.8). The broader irrigation rule in LMC 8.40.0220(C)(1) reinforces this by requiring every irrigation system, xeriscaped or not, to include an automatic controller with an overriding rain sensor that shuts off watering during rainfall.