Nassau County, FL Water Use Rules: Turf Replacement Rebates (2026)

H defines xeriscaping as waterwise landscaping adaptable to local conditions and drought tolerant, built around site-appropriate plants, an efficient irrigation system, planning and design, soil analysis, practical turf use and mulching, including compost made from solid waste. The section lays out three irrigation zones for a landscape plan: a high water use zone for plants like turf grass that need supplemental water beyond rainfall, a moderate zone for plants that need extra water only in seasonal dry periods, and a low water use zone for plants that survive on rainfall alone, with irrigation meant to be zoned separately for each.

For vehicular use areas specifically, the code calls for fifty percent of the plantings to be drought tolerant and grouped by these water-use zones. Turf grass gets its own guidance rather than a numeric cap: it should be consolidated and limited to areas that receive pedestrian traffic, serve recreational uses, control erosion on berms, slopes and swales, or work as a design unifier, and all planting areas are to be mulched with roughly three inches of organic mulch such as pine bark or shredded hardwood chips.

Because the operative verb throughout this subsection is 'should' rather than 'shall,' xeriscape design is the standard the county holds new landscape plans to during review, but it does not require an existing lawn to be torn out or replaced.