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

The Zoning and Development Code's water-efficient landscape criteria in Sec. O score every landscape plan against a 140-point system covering plant choice and irrigation design, and the Community Development Director or designee cannot approve a plan unless it scores at least 100 of the 140 available points in each technique category. Turf is capped inside that system: the code states that turf is limited to forty percent of the total landscape area in residential projects and twenty percent of the total landscape in all other projects, and adds a hard ceiling that in no case will turf make up more than fifty percent of the total landscape.

Separately, Sec. h sets fixed turf percentage caps tied to required landscape setback and parking-lot areas: turf must not exceed forty-five percent of the required landscaping area for commercial and industrial development, and must not exceed seventy-five percent of the required landscaping area for multifamily residential development. The same section requires the balance of any required landscaped area to be planted with turf, non-deciduous groundcover, shrubs, or other predominantly drought-tolerant plant types, and bars artificial groundcover materials outright. These caps apply to any landscape project subject to Sec.

1300, meaning new landscapes of 500 square feet or more and rehabilitated landscapes of 25,000 square feet or more, reviewed and approved by the Development Services Department before installation begins.