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

Section 13.90.040(A)(4), part of the 2010 Water Efficient Landscape ordinance, calls this standard the "Minimal Use of Turf." Turf areas must be used wisely in response to functional needs and cannot push a landscape's estimated applied water use past its maximum applied water allowance, a figure calculated from reference evapotranspiration, an ET adjustment factor and the size of the landscaped area under Section 13.90.020. Warm-season turf such as Bermuda, Kikuyu or Zoysia grass is strongly encouraged over cool-season turf like Kentucky bluegrass or perennial ryegrass, and turf is barred outright on slopes steeper than 25 percent, meaning one foot of vertical rise for every four feet of horizontal run, wherever the toe of that slope meets impermeable hardscape.

These design criteria apply whenever a project's landscape documentation package is required, which Section 13.90.030 sets at more than 500 square feet of new landscape area or more than 2,500 square feet of rehabilitated landscape, or one acre or more for cemeteries and existing landscapes preparing a worksheet. Separately, the newer zoning code, Section 18.18.040, prohibits synthetic or artificial turf entirely for qualifying development, so a property owner cannot swap a restricted natural lawn for fake grass instead of a compliant low-water landscape.