Palm Beach Gardens, FL Water Use Rules: Turf Replacement Rebates (2026)

Section 78-313, 'Minimum landscape requirements for nonresidential development,' first sets a floor: new nonresidential projects must provide at least 15 percent open space under subsection (a). Subsection (b) then flips to a ceiling on turf specifically, stating that 'not more than 40 percent of the total landscape area shall be covered with sod or grass.' The section gives one built-in adjustment: developments that include playgrounds, ballfields, golf courses, dry detention areas, or similar grassy uses may subtract that acreage from the landscape-area total before checking the 40-percent cap, so a project heavy in ballfields or detention turf is not automatically penalized.

The cap works alongside the landscape-point system in Table 26, which awards more points per 100 square feet of open space for lower percentages of open space provided, and the 0.25-point-per-10-square-feet value assigned to grass in Table 27 is deliberately the lowest of any planting category, pushing developers toward trees, palms, shrubs, and ground cover instead of turf to satisfy the city's point minimums. Residential development follows a separate open-space standard in section 78-314 rather than this 40-percent sod ceiling. Compliance is verified by the growth management department's landscape inspector during construction plan review under section 78-306(c), and violations fall under the compliance and enforcement provisions of section 78-308.