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

060 of the Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance sets the city's turf regulations for every project required to submit a landscape design package to the Department of Planning Services. Turf cannot be installed on a slope steeper than 25 percent where the base of the slope meets an impermeable surface, and any landscape strip 10 feet wide or narrower may use only low-volume drip or wick irrigation for turf, never spray heads. On commercial, industrial or multifamily sites, turf is barred from medians, parking lot islands and any inaccessible portion of the property, and is capped at 15 percent of the total landscaped area; the planning director can allow a small median or island patch only where it is necessary for pedestrians walking from a parked car to the sidewalk.

Single-family lots face the same 15 percent cap, but only on the front yard and side street frontage yard, meaning backyard turf is unrestricted by this section. Athletic fields, parks, golf courses and cemeteries must confine turf to areas essential to the facility's operation, with everything else planted in lower water-use species. No turf can go where it cannot be irrigated efficiently or where overspray and runoff cannot be controlled. 0, from parking islands, medians and narrow landscape strips. All private-development plans must be prepared by a registered landscape architect or other qualified professional and installed by a licensed contractor before the Department of Planning Services will approve them, with the planning commission able to weigh in at the planning director's discretion.