36-6 Outdoor landscaping and irrigation standards

(1) General landscape design. Landscaping shall be designed to be water efficient, durable, attractive, maintainable, and appropriate for Tooele County’s climate, soils, slopes, wildfire risk, and available water supply. (2) Plant materials. Native, adapted, drought-tolerant, or otherwise low-water-use plant materials shall be used. Plant selection shall account for mature size, microclimate, soil conditions, solar exposure, maintenance needs, and irrigation demand. (3) Soil preparation and mulch. Planting areas shall include appropriate soil preparation and mulch or other ground treatment to reduce evaporation, suppress weeds, and support plant health. Mulch and groundcover shall be installed and maintained so that it does not obstruct drainage facilities, create a nuisance, or migrate onto streets, sidewalks, trails, or stormwater systems. (4) Irrigation design. Irrigation systems shall be designed and installed to achieve high water efficiency and shall be appropriate for the plants, slopes, soils, exposure, and hydrozones served. (5) Low-volume irrigation. Drip irrigation, bubblers, or other low-volume irrigation shall be used in planting areas other than lawn or turf areas unless the Community Development Department approves an alternative that provides equal or greater water efficiency. (6) Irrigation equipment. Irrigation systems shall include, as applicable: (a) pressure regulation; (b) filtration; (c) flush-end assemblies or equivalent maintenance access for drip systems; (d) backflow prevention and cross-connection protection required by applicable code or the water provider; (e) check valves or other devices to prevent low-head drainage; (f) matched precipitation heads for spray irrigation; (g) smart irrigation controllers with automatic weather-based or soil-moisture-based adjustments and rain shutoff capability; and (h) separate valves, stations, or zones as required by Subsection (7). (7) Irrigation zoning. Separate irrigation zones shall be required for: (a) lawn or turf and non-turf areas; (b) drip, bubbler, and spray systems; (c) areas with different slopes, soils, solar exposure, or plant water requirements; (d) trees shrubs, and groundcover where separate zoning is needed to avoid overwatering; and (e) park strips or narrow landscape areas when irrigation is approved for those areas. (8) Overspray and runoff. Irrigation shall not be designed, installed, or operated in a manner that causes avoidable overspray, runoff, pooling, erosion, or irrigation of pavement, sidewalks, driveways, roads, trails, buildings, walls, fences, or other non-landscaped surfaces. (9) Water features. A water feature shall use a recirculating system. Once-through water features are prohibited unless required for public health or safety and approved by the County and applicable water provider. (10) Lawn and turf limitations. Lawn or turf shall not be installed in: (a) park strips; (b) medians, parking lot islands, entry features, or other nonfunctional turf areas; (c) swales, drainage channels, stormwater basins, or drainage features unless specifically designed and approved for stormwater function, erosion control, active recreation, or another functional purpose; (d) slopes steeper than twenty-five percent (25%) (4:1 or steeper); (e) areas less than eight (8) feet in width; or (f) areas that cannot be efficiently irrigated without overspray or runoff. (11) Residential turf. In new residential subdivisions and new one- and two-family dwellings, lawn or turf shall not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the front and side yard landscaped area. Lots with less than two hundred fifty (250) square feet of front and side yard landscaped area are exempt from this percentage limitation. (12) Commercial, industrial, institutional, and multi-family turf. In new commercial, industrial, institutional, and multi-family developments, lawn or turf shall not exceed twenty percent (20%) of the total landscaped area, excluding active recreation areas. (13) Active recreation areas. Lawn or turf in active recreation areas shall be sized, located, and designed for the intended use and shall not be used to avoid the nonfunctional turf limitations in this Section. (14) No turf requirement. Nothing in this Chapter shall be interpreted to require the installation or maintenance of lawn or turf. (15) Water-wise landscaping protection. The County shall not prohibit or unreasonably restrict waterwise landscaping. This Chapter shall be interpreted and applied to encourage reduced water use while allowing the County to require safe, healthy, and maintainable landscapes consistent with Utah law. (Ord. 2026-07, 6/30/26)