Oxnard Municipal Code Art. XIII Landscape Water Conservation Standards

(A) It is the policy of the city to promote water conservation. These landscape water conservation standards are intended to promote water conservation while allowing the maximum possible flexibility in designing attractive and cost effective water efficient landscapes.

(B) These landscape water conservation standards are to be used in conjunction with the adopted City of Oxnard landscape standards. Where conflicts in language may exist between these landscape water conservation standards and the city's landscape standards, the more restrictive language shall prevail.

(Ord. No. 2822)

(A) Compliance with these landscape water conservation standards is mandatory for all new or altered landscaping with commercial and industrial construction projects and residential construction projects that are subject to review by the planning division and or building and engineering services. Any project deemed complete by the planning division after the effective date of this article is subject to the requirements herein. Any project submitted to building and engineering services, which was not deemed complete by the planning division prior to the adoption of this article, after the adoption of this article is subject to the requirements herein.

(B) Exceptions.

(1) These standards shall not be mandatory for individual private rear yards, enclosed by a fence, of single-family residences, planned residential groups, and/or other individual residences with a private fenced back yard, unless required by a discretionary permit.

(2) These standards shall not be mandatory for new or altered single-family residential projects with a total project landscape area less than or equal to 5,000 square feet.

(3) These standards shall not be mandatory for new or altered developer-installed single-family residential projects with a total project landscape area less than or equal to 2,500 square feet.

(Ord. No. 2822)

(A) EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET) - The approximate summation of water losses through evaporation from soil and transpiration from the plants during a specified period of time.

(B) EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET ) ADJUSTMENT FACTOR - A factor used to set an efficiency goal, that when applied to ETo adjusts for plant factor and irrigation efficiency, two of the major influences upon the amount of water that needs to be applied to a landscape.

(C) LANDSCAPE AREA (LA) - All planting areas, turf areas, and water features where new or altered landscaping is proposed as a part of a development proposal. The landscape area does not include footprints of buildings or structures, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, decks, patios, gravel or stone walks, other pervious or non-pervious hardscapes, and other non-irrigated areas designated for non-development (e.g., open spaces and existing native vegetation).

(D) LANDSCAPE PLAN - Design plans with a planting plan, irrigation plan, and plans with supporting detail sheets to include notes and/or specifications.

(E) PLANT FACTOR - A factor that when multiplied by the ETo, estimates the amount of water used by a given plant species.

(F) REFERENCE EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (Eto) - The approximation of water loss from a field of 4-to-7-inch-tall cool season grass that is not water stressed.

(G) SPECIAL LANDSCAPE AREA (SLA) - An area of the landscape dedicated permanently and solely to edible plants, such as orchards and vegetable gardens and areas dedicated to active play where turf provides a playing surface, such as parks, sport fields, golf courses are subject to the MAWA with an ET adjustment factor not to exceed 1.0.

(H) TURF - A groundcover surface of mowed grass with an irrigation water need of greater than 30% of the ETo.

(I) WATER BUDGET CALCULATION - The maximum applied water allowance (MAWA) shall be calculated using this formula:

MAWA = (ETo) (0.62) [0.7 x LA + 0.3 x SLA]

MAWA = Maximum applied water allowance (maximum gallons per year available for the project)

ETo = Reference evapotranspiration (42.3) inches per year for Oxnard)

• 0.7 = ET adjustment factor (as designated by the State of California)

• LA = Landscape area (square feet, including SLA)

• 0.62 = Conversion factor (to gallons)

SLA = Special landscape area (square feet)

0.3 = The additional ET adjustment factor for the special landscape area

(J) WATER WISE PLANTS - Those plants that are evaluated as needing "moderate" (40-60% of ETo), "low" (10-30% of ETo) and "very low" (< 10% of ETo) amounts of water as defined and listed by water use classifications of landscape species (WUCOLS) available at:

Department of Water Resources

Bulletins and Reports

P.O. Box 942836

Sacramento, California 94236-0001

(916) 653-1097

Other sources of water wise plant classifications may be used if approved by the city.

(K) WEATHER BASED IRRIGATION CONTROLLER - An irrigation controller that automatically adjusts the irrigation schedule based on changes in the weather.

(Ord. No. 2822)

Applicants proposing new or altered landscaping shall comply with each of the following requirements in the design, installation, and maintenance of the landscaped area unless an exception is granted pursuant to Section 22-244.

(A) Landscape plan. Applicants shall submit a landscape plan depicting the landscaped area and all existing landscaping to remain on the lot as determined by the development services department. Landscaping shall be designed to be irrigated at no more than 0.7 of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and shall not exceed the MAWA. The city reserves the right to require modifications to plans in quantity and quality of the landscape to meet the landscape water conservation standards requirements.

(B) Use of turf and water wise plants.

(1) The landscape area of projects proposing commercial or industrial uses shall be designed without the use of turf and with 100% water wise plants. The exception to this is where a turf type is specified for any required bio-swale or bio-filter systems.

(2) Turf is the appropriate choice in parkways where vehicle parking is permitted adjacent to the parkway curb. The parkways may include a maximum of two non-permanent hardscape areas where space permits. The non-permanent hardscape area can be pervious pavers, decomposed granite, brick on sand, concrete pavers or other materials approved by the development services director or designee and may serve as a pedestrian landing between the parkway curb and the sidewalk. Each non-permanent hardscape area may be no larger than 4'-0" in width and be installed and sized in such a manner that it can be easily removed should the city or utility company need to do work in the parkway in the future. The pedestrian landing area must be a minimum of 5'-0" away from the street tree and 3'-0" away from any meter boxes, cable boxes, transformers, street lights, or other objects that may be in the parkway.

(3) Where parking is not permitted adjacent to the parkway curb, the parkway shall be designed using 100% water wise plants.

(4) The landscape area of single-family residential, multi-family residential, and institutional type of projects shall be designed with no more than 40% of the landscaped area in turf or plants that are not water wise plants. In the case of single-family residences and other residences with a rear yard that is enclosed by a fence separate from any other residence's rear yard or common area, the area to be used in the calculation of the "landscape area" shall only include the front yards and any side yard outside the individual dwelling unit's private area (typically, a rear yard). Approved turf parkways are not a part of the 40% turf limitation.

(5) Turf is not permitted in medians or parking lot landscape finger planters.

(6) Turf shall not be used on slopes of 20% (5:1) or greater within the landscape area.

(7) Notwithstanding requirements (1) and (2) above, additional turf areas may be approved by the development services director or designee for areas designed and used for outdoor sporting and recreational activities or for an approved functional use. Approved turf areas may be watered at 1.0 of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo).

(C) Mulch. The landscape area, except those portions of the landscaped area planted in turf shall be covered with mulch material to an average thickness of at least three inches throughout. In areas with groundcovers planted from flats, mulch shall be installed to an average thickness of one and one-half inches. Additional mulch material shall be added from time to time as necessary in order to maintain the required depth of mulch.

(D) Irrigation. All new or altered irrigation systems which require a planning or building permit, whether or not new or altered landscaping is proposed, shall incorporate the following requirements in their design, installation and maintenance:

(1) Irrigation systems shall be designed and installed to avoid overspray and runoff.

(2) Valves shall be separated for individual hydrozones based on plant water needs and sun/shade requirements.

(3) Water budget calculations (Sec. 22-242(J)) shall be shown on irrigation plans.

(4) An automatic irrigation system is required and shall include a weather based irrigation controller with a rain shut-off sensor.

(5) Areas less than eight feet wide are a particular challenge and shall be irrigated with appropriately selected equipment that provides the proper amount of water coverage without causing overspray onto paved surfaces.

(6) All sprinklers shall have matched precipitation rates within each valve and circuit. All irrigation systems shall be designed to include optimum distribution uniformity, head to head spacing and setbacks from walkways and pavement.

(7) All irrigation systems shall provide check valves at the low end of irrigation lines to prevent unwanted draining of irrigation lines.

(8) Pressure regulators may be required on the irrigation system as determined by the development services director or designee.

(9) Irrigation systems shall be installed and irrigation controllers shall be programmed to comply with current city code regarding water conservation and/or water waste.

(10) All landscaping serviced by a dedicated landscape irrigation account shall be enrolled in the city's landscape water budget program. This program promotes ongoing effective management of irrigation water in new and existing landscapes by providing a periodic comparison of actual water used to a designated water budget.

(Ord. No. 2822)

(A) Adopted and implemented specific plans including Mandalay Bay, McInnes Ranch, Northwest Community, Northfield Seagate, Northeast Community, Northwest Golf Course, RiverPark, and Rose-Santa Clara need not comply with these standards. However, if the properties within the specific plan area would like to voluntarily comply with the standards they may do so as long as the streetscape section maintains a cohesive, harmonious appearance (i.e. if all parkways currently have turf, one property may not elect to put groundcover in the parkway adjacent to their property), as determined by the development services director or designee.

(B) Exceptions to these landscape water conservation standards may be granted by the city upon finding that the exceptions will promote equivalent or greater water conservation than is provided for in these standards. Requests for exceptions shall be in writing and shall be submitted to the development services director or designee at the time the application is submitted to either the planning division or building and engineering department. Requests for exceptions must be accompanied by documentation demonstrating that the finding of equivalent or greater water conservation can be made.

(Ord. No. 2822)

(A) Applicants shall provide all relevant information on the landscape plan, including botanical names for plants and turf species, percentage calculations of allowable areas of turf, low, medium or high water use plants, and water-wise plants, water budget calculations, monthly irrigation schedule and specific requests for any exceptions to the requirements of these landscape water conservation standards. Areas of existing landscaping to remain unaltered shall be indicated on the landscape plan.

(B) The landscape plan shall be prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Cal. Business and Professions Code relating to the practice of landscape architecture (Cal. Business and Professional Code, Section 5641 et seq.)

(C) The landscape plan shall include a "statement of compliance" in a form approved by the city certifying that the landscape design complies with the mandatory elements of these landscape water conservation standards. The statement of compliance shall be signed by the state licensed landscape architect or the state licensed architect who prepared the plans.

(Ord. No. 2822)

(A) The state licensed landscape architect or the state licensed architect who prepared the landscape plan shall inspect the installation of the landscaping and any irrigation system included in the plan and shall certify in writing that the installation substantially conforms to the approved landscape plan and that the irrigation controller is programmed appropriately. This shall be done prior to a permanent certificate of occupancy being issued.

(B) At the discretion of the city, an irrigation audit shall be performed to verify that the irrigation system is performing at an efficient level consistent with the approved plans.

(Ord. No. 2822)

Verification of compliance with the landscape water conservation standards, as applicable, shall be made by the development services department in accordance with the following requirements:

(A) No building permit shall be issued unless the statement of compliance required by Sec. 22-245(C) has been included on the final landscape plan submitted to building and engineering services for plan check approval.

(B) No building permit shall be given a final landscape inspection or issued a permanent certificate of occupancy until the development services inspector or designee receives a written certification of conforming installation as required by Sec. 22-246.

(Ord. No. 2822)