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

Section 45-516 sits in the landscaping article of the Land Development Code and requires xeriscape design, defined as water conserving, drought tolerant landscaping, for all non-residential, multifamily, planned unit developments (common areas and rights-of-way only), planned commercial developments and planned industrial developments. One- and two-family residential building sites are carved out of the mandate entirely, though the Code encourages voluntary compliance. Under the design standard, plants must be grouped into high, moderate and low water-use zones drawn from Table 7.4, and turf grass, the Code's highest water-use category, gets its own limiting rule: turf areas shall be consolidated and limited to spots that receive pedestrian traffic, support recreation, control erosion on slopes or in swales, or serve as a design unifier, with the landscape plan required to label each turf use.

This functions as the county's turf-limiting mechanism for covered developments: it does not force removal of existing lawn, but it stops a newly covered project from planting turf as a default groundcover across a site once the xeriscape trigger applies. Irrigation for xeriscaped turf and beds must still meet § 45-515(d)'s moisture-sensor and water-district-restriction rules, and mulch at least two inches deep is required in plant beds under § 45-516(e). Plant selection is drawn from Table 7.4 species approved for the applicable water-use zone, with freeze- and drought-tolerant species preferred.